A credit alert is a notice to a credit reporting bureau when there is a change on your credit report, like a new account, address change, increased credit card balance, or a search when you apply for borrowing.
Credit alerts helps protect against fraud by notifying you or any changes on your credit report. You will receive credit alerts if you have opted in to the Know your credit score service on the mobile app.
No, a credit alert does not impact credit score. It simply notifies you of a change to your credit report. Some changes may affect your score, such as opening a new credit card account or paying off a loan.
No, a credit alert cannot stop you from getting credit. However, changes that negatively impact your credit score might limit your credit approval chances.
TransUnion monitors changes to a customer's credit report and you will be notified via credit alerts in the Know your credit score section of the mobile app. You will also receive alerts via push notification or email.
This means you can act quickly if you see something unfamiliar. You might already be aware of these changes, as they are usually initiated by you.
TransUnion monitors a wide range of alert types. These include:
You may already know about these changes because you initiated them. However, you will still get an alert so you can quickly act on anything unfamiliar.
These alerts might refer to events from the previous month, as it can take 4-6 weeks for information to reach TransUnion and show on your credit report.
As well as showing credit alerts within the mobile app, we also send alerts by push notification and email. If you do not have push enabled on your device, we will send your credit alert notification via email. This allows us to quickly make you aware of any triggered alerts. All alerts will be stored in the Credit alerts section of Know your credit score in the mobile app, allowing you to check if you have missed any alerts.
Our alerts are free, and you are automatically signed up to them when you opt in to view your free credit score and report.
The alerts are an integral part of Know your credit score, and this means you can't decide which alerts you get as part of this service. In order to stop the alerts, you can opt-out of Know your credit score as a whole.
If you have the mobile app:
If you use Anytime Internet Banking:
If you have recently left us, you may be able to reinstall the app and follow the steps above to stop alerts immediately.
If this isn’t possible, there may be a short delay while our records are updated and you may still receive alerts for a short period.
Whilst you will be able to see the details of a credit alert in the Credit alerts section of Know your credit score, it may take up to 30 days for the alert to show within your credit report.
Whilst the information may not be visible in the credit report within the mobile app for up to 30 days, the information will be available in your TransUnion report and will therefore be visible to other lenders as part of their lending decisioning.
If you don't recognise the information within the alert, and the alert details have been updated in your credit report, you can raise a dispute against a particular piece of information in your credit report in the Know your credit score section of the mobile app.
If the details have not yet updated in your credit report, you can sign up to TransUnion where you will be able to review and dispute the alert details.
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