Dollars and sense: How do I check my credit score?
Sunday, 5 April 2026
Senior business reporter Rob Stock answers your money questions. Got a question for Sunday magazine? Email it to sundaymagazine@stuff.co.nz
QUESTION: What is a credit score, and how do I check mine?
ANSWER: Everyone has a credit score assigned to them by the operators of a slightly shadowy private financial surveillance system that monitors each and every one of us.
We individuals, theoretically, agree to be surveilled in every contract we agree to with a bank, telecoms company, insurance company, etc. These contracts give the companies we have no choice but to have in our lives the right to pass information on us to the credit information companies like Centrix and Illion. This information includes when we miss payments on loans and other contracts with them.
I used the word “theoretically” because we have no ability to opt out of this system.
Based on the information on our payments history they hand over, Experian and Centrix work out credit scores for us between zero (appalling) and 1000 (angelic perfection).
Basically, if you have a history of missing payments on your debts and bills you are going to have a low score.
A credit score is not the be-all and end-all of life, but it determines which companies want to have you as a customer, or give you a loan, and the terms that they will have you as a customer, such as whether they want to only provide you with electricity on a pre-paid basis, and whether they charge you 8.99% for a loan, or 29.99%.
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This is clearly not a neutral system. It has been convincingly argued that it helps entrench privilege and poverty. In the US, academics have called the system racist.
But companies like it because it allows them to make more rational, and profitable, decisions.
Checking your score is simple, and free. You can check your Experian credit score- and see what’s on your credit file- through Clearscope, and your CreditSimple score directly with the company through its website.
What’s a good credit score?
Lender Nectar Money says anything over 825 is strong, and anything over 893 is excellent.
Average is anything in the 700s and early 800s.
If you are under that, you have a below average credit score, and below 500 is poor.
If you have a score in the basement below 500, you have problems like too much debt, and bills you need to catch up on. Your credit file, which you will get with your credit score, will tell you what’s wrong.
It takes time to build up your credit score. It is like doing time in prison. You basically have to get back on track, stop missing payments, get up to date on all your accounts, and reduce your debts.
Avoid being duped into taking on “credit builder” loans to build your credit score. In my book they are dangerous, self-serving nonsense from lenders.
Once a lender has a person on its books, it will market debt to them. Lenders like to normalise debt for things as abnormal as buying new clothes and going on holiday. That’s to their advantage.
But I digress. Back to the main topic. There is a correlation between the health of your money life, and your credit score.
That makes it worth keeping track of, and checking in from time to time.
- Sunday Magazine