Credit Agencies Call For Student Loan Info

Students could find themselves struggling to secure a mortgage in the future as credit agencies push to have student loan information revealed.

If you apply for a loan, mortgage or credit card, one of the three big credit agencies (Experian, Callcredit or Equifax) will be called on to carry out checks on your personal credit history.

Thanks to information from banks, building societies and other lenders, the credit agencies can see things like the balance on accounts, late or missed payments, or whether only the minimum amount is being paid off each month.

However, credit agencies do not have access to student loan debt as the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has refused access to this data because it believes it is not a commercial debt like a credit card advance or personal loan.

Lenders argue that the missing data denies access to the full picture and means they cannot make responsible lending decisions and if repayments will be maintained.

The Citizens Advice Bureau and the Student Loan Company (SLC) want the data to be public.

At the end of last year, the chief executive of SLC wrote to the government to ask it to change the rules and allow lenders access to the information but no decision has been made yet.

Critics are worried that prospective students will avoid higher education if they believe having loan debt will reduce their chance of obtaining any credit, like a mortgage, when they graduate.