What can I do if I have no credit history? You have been a customer of Barclays since about 1956 and have held a Barclaycard for a very long time. You are nearly 80 and say you may not have time to build up a credit record. You say all you want is your full credit history recorded by credit reference agencies. Barclaycard had responded that you could opt to have your details sent to the credit reference agencies from now on but these could not be backdated. The bank offered you £50 for the inconvenience but you felt it was fobbing you off and turned it down. Later, after I had convinced you that it wasn't, you accepted the £50 and gave it to charity. Banks only routinely started relaying information about bank account overdrafts and mortgages to credit reference agencies from around 2000 onwards. Existing customer details were not registered because account holders had not been notified that this would happen when they opened the account. Credit histories can't be shown retrospectively but account holders can give consent for them to be revealed going forward What does a credit file do? Most providers of such products as credit cards, mortgages and mobile phone contracts register with the three credit reference agencies: Experian, Equifax and Callcredit. Information gleaned from them helps them decide whether to deal with an individual. The agencies may also be used by organisations including providers of savings accounts to satisfy money laundering regulations for checking identity and for address verification. If the information does not conform to what they expect further documentation will probably be asked for. This all means that people without anything showing on their file may feel something of an outcast. If they want to borrow for, say, home improvements or some emergency, even though they may be highly deserving according to most criteria, the lack of a credit history may lead to their application for borrowing being turned down. Many readers express unease about the powers credit reference agencies have. Can I find out what they know about me? You can acquire a copy of your individual statutory credit report for a £2 fee from Experian via www.experian.co.uk (see right hand side 3rd box down) and from Equifax at www.equifax.co.uk (see very bottom of page). For a free report from Callcredit go to www.noddle.co.uk. Why are lenders unwilling to lend when I haven't borrowed before? If you do not have a history shown on a credit file the provider will be in the dark about how you cope with borrowing. Might you, it might wonder, scarper off for a six month round-the-world trip boozing in every bar with the money it has given you access to and then go bankrupt and not pay when you come back? Such shenanigans are not unheard of. How do I establish a credit history? Consider taking out a mobile phone contract rather than a pay-as-you-go one. Obtain, if you can, a bank overdraft facility, or retail store card. Duncan Bowker of Callcredit says "There are credit building credit cards out there that, although they have a low credit limit, will allow consumers to prove that they are capable of managing a line of credit." These are expensive to borrow from though so pay the full balance off each month. Make sure you feature on the electoral roll. Duncan Bowker adds "It is important that credit reference agencies have a record of previous addresses you have lived at as that is continuous proof that helps provide a profile. This historical data is part and parcel of building your financial footprint.  I live abroad but have not ruled out coming back to the UK. What would happen were I to want a mortgage, as the borrowing I have had abroad isn't shown on the credit reference files? UK banks cannot run a check on a non UK address. Once you do have a UK address put yourself on the electoral roll. However if you have kept a UK address and continued to use a UK bank account that is of fairly recent origin, ie not pre 2000 as discussed above, information will have been fed through to your credit report.