A credit history is the information about concluded loan contracts and their repayment procedure, obtained by the Bureau from banks, finance and leasing companies, credit unions, and other financial institutions. Data on a loan contract is stored in the Bureau’s database for 10 years from the expiration date of the contract, after the borrower has fully completed obligations under it.

A credit history also contains personal identification data, the history of a person’s credit history requests by lenders, and other information about the person from open sources.

In order to get a credit history by mail, you need to send an application to the postal address of the Ukrainian Bureau of Credit Histories Ltd., 49505, Dnipro City, P.O. Box 7566.

Application Example

The application must contain the information that allows identification of the borrower (surname, first name, middle name, passport details, identification code, legal address, residential address).

The credit history will be sent by registered mail to the specified postal address, within 2 days after receiving the application. The letter is delivered and handed to the recipient in person, with signature required upon receipt. If there is no credit history, you will receive a corresponding signed and stamped certificate.

A credit history can be requested only by its owner and organizations that have obtained the consent of the owner to verify their data. When applying for a loan and concluding a contract, the lender must obtain the consent of the borrower to verify their data in the Bureau, to approve a loan and/or monitor the status of a credit history during the term of an active loan contract.

A credit history of another person can be obtained only on the basis of a corresponding court decision, or notarized power of attorney.

If you find an error, you have the right to dispute the information in your credit history. The credit history can be corrected, if the lender confirms that the disputed information is inaccurate. In any case, you can include a comment of up to 100 words regarding the information that you disagree with in your credit history.

You can submit a request to dispute your credit history following this link. To do this, you must get authenticated on the website.

The frequency of updating data on loans depends on the lender — from daily to monthly data transfers.

All reports received previously can be found under Journal — Requests. To do this, you must get authenticated on the website.

A «Credit History» report contains a Register of Requests section that displays who, when, and for what purpose the information about you was requested.

The Bureau may not have information about a loan for one of the following reasons:

• the lender is not the Bureau’s partner,
• the contract was made before the lender started collaborating with the Bureau,
• the lender has not obtained your consent to transfer the information to the Bureau,
• the lender decided not to transfer the information about a certain type of contracts, applicable to your loan, to the Bureau
  etc.

In any case you may contact the lender, asking them to provide the Bureau with the information about your contract. The lender, in turn, can either fulfill or decline your request.

Monitoring your own credit history will help to:

• identify and dispute possible lenders’ errors, while transferring the data about you, in a timely manner,
• prevent fraud against you, or promptly detect and dispute fraudulent loans.

A credit score is a numerical evaluation of the credit history quality, which lenders rely on when deciding whether to issue a new loan. It reflects statistical probability of successful fulfillment of loan obligations in the future by the borrower, based on the information about their current loan debt, the frequency of applications for loans, types and amounts of loans taken out, payment procedures, and other data from their credit history.

More than 250 credit history factors influence the credit score. It can change both as a result of obvious events in the credit history (opening/closing a loan, occurrence/repayment of overdue arrears, applying for a loan, etc.), as well as due to less obvious reasons over time, arising from a particular event.

Some evident factors that can slightly lower your credit score are:

• • recurrent applying for a loan,
  • opening a new loan or changing the credit limit, which increases the current loan debt,
  • late payments,
  • exceeding threshold values of the duration of the current overdue payment

etc.

The credit score value is calculated on the basis of the data that make up a credit history, so you can influence the credit score only indirectly, by generating a credit history.

To improve the assessment of credit history, it is reasonable:

• first of all, to settle any overdue payments, if any (their presence is a factor that lowers evaluation of the credit history quality most of all);
• minimize the number of simultaneously open agreements (full repayment and closing one or more current loans or credit card agreements, which you no longer use, will reduce the level of loan debt);
• use loan products making payments on them in a timely manner (getting a small short-term loan and repaying it without violating the payment schedule will have a positive effect on evaluation of the credit history quality).

• Instantly when your credit history is requested by a lender.
• During the day upon receipt in the credit history of information concerning:

              – occurrence/repayment of arrears;

              – opening/closing a loan;

              – changing the credit card limit.

• Monthly to monitor the current credit score value.

FREEZE is a tool to protect you against unwanted loans issued in your name.

By enabling the StatusControl service, you can, on your own, activate and deactivate the FREEZE option, without any limitations.

If the option is enabled, lenders will NOT be able to view your credit history with the purpose of approving a new loan. Instead, a lender will be notified that you have chosen not to take out a loan, and you will be notified about the declined attempt of checking your credit history.

Your existing lenders can monitor your credit history regardless of the status of the FREEZE option.

Before making a new loan application, you should temporarily disable the FREEZE option, to allow the lender to check the state of your credit history.

Protection against unwanted loans will be useful, in any circumstances that increase the risk of their occurrence:

• • in case of loss of documents,
  • for the duration of a long trip abroad,
  • if unauthorized persons received your personal data,

etc.

If you value a sense of security and want to avoid credit fraud, this is a good reason to use the FREEZE option.

In addition to your own credit history, you can add up to 3 credit histories of your family members, with their consent.

The option is available as part of the StatusControl service without any additional payments.

In order to add another person’s credit history for monitoring, you need to log into your account on the ubki.ua website, and select «Add subject for monitoring» in StatusControl settings.

The respective person must then follow the generated link, log in, and confirm their consent to provide their credit history data to you.

Each particular link is intended to connect one person.

The credit history owner can turn off their credit history monitoring at any time, about which you will receive a notification.

The credit history owner, connected to the monitoring option, can also receive free notifications about events in their credit history through Viber or Telegram. For this purpose, they need to be authorized in the chatbot.

Your credit history can be requested by the following parties:

• your existing lenders, i.e., the organizations where you have existing loans or credit cards;
• potential lenders or employers, to which you have applied and gave permission to check your credit history.

If you got a message about someone requesting your credit history, which does not meet these conditions, you should immediately call the hotline or any other contact number of this organization, and let them know that, at the moment, there can be an attempt of obtaining a fraudulent loan in your name. If indeed there is a fraudulent attempt, your prompt reporting will help prevent this from occurring.

As your next step, you should contact the Bureau to dispute the request. To do this, in the «Dispute your credit history» section, fill in the appropriate application form. We will initiate verification of the request, in accordance with applicable law.

If your passport has been stolen or lost, you should immediately register it in the UBCH’s register of lost passports. This will significantly reduce the risk of issuing fraudulent loans in your name, using a lost document. Even if you are not sure about the loss of your passport, but cannot find it, we recommend that you report the loss. If you find the passport later, you can cancel your application.

If your passport has been stolen, you should first apply to the police (Ministry of Internal Affairs), and obtain an extract from the Unified State Register of Pre-Trial Investigations. This action will allow to prove the fact of the fraud, if your document has been used to issue loans, execute civil agreements etc.

Regardless of the circumstances of the passport loss, you must contact a department of the State Migration Service, the Administration Service Center, or the «Passport Service» center to receive a new document (at the place of registration in case of passport loss, or in any department in case of ID card loss).

To approve a loan, most lenders always check the borrower’s credit history. If you apply for a loan with your lost document, the lender will receive the following warning when checking your credit history: «ATTENTION! The client has reported a lost passport (series/number). High risk of fraud!».

Other individuals or legal entities are also free to check the validity of passports against registers of lost/stolen/canceled passports.

This can be done on the UBCH website or in the «UBCH Credit History» chatbot.

To approve a loan, most lenders always check the borrower’s credit history. In order to receive instant notifications about such requests for your credit history, it is enough to have the Diya application installed, and activate the option of notifications about events in your credit history in reporting settings (free of charge), or connect the StatusControl service, which requires the payment of a fee, but provides many additional features.

If you got a notification about a request for your credit history from a lender that you did not apply to, you should immediately call the hotline or any other contact number of this organization, and let them know that, at the moment, there can be an attempt of obtaining a fraudulent loan in your name. If indeed there is a fraudulent attempt, your prompt reporting will help prevent this from occurring.

A more effective way to protect yourself is not just to monitor requests, but to prohibit lenders to access your credit history, in order to approve new loans. This can be done by activating the FREEZE option in the StatusControl service.

Specify your phone number and date of birth, then input the code from the notification you receive at the specified phone number.
Use the phone number that you gave to lenders.

If your phone number has changed, or has been used by another person, you will have to provide additional identification data and undergo a photo verification process.

Verification of credit score value on the main screen, annual free credit history request, selection of credit programs, lost passport registration.

This notification means that a new credit entry has appeared in your credit history. The notification displays the date of opening of the loan and the lender’s name.

If you have not opened this loan:

1. Obtain your credit history to find out details about the loan, and check for other contracts that you may not be aware of.
2. Dispute the loan by using the corresponding form at ubki.ua. Upon your application, the Bureau will initiate a request to the lender to verify the validity of the contract in your credit history.
3. You should also contact the lender to make a statement that the loan was not obtained by you, request an investigation and cancel the debt.

If the lender declines the application, contact law enforcement authorities with a statement about a criminal offense perpetrated against you, namely fraud that consists in issuing a loan in your name.
If the lender refuses to admit the fact of fraud, you should go to court.

This message means that a lender requested your credit history, to approve a new loan.

If you have not submitted an application for a loan, or have not provided credit card details to the corresponding organization, you should immediately call the hotline, or any other contact number of this organization and let them know that, at the moment, there can be an attempt of obtaining a fraudulent loan in your name. If indeed there is a fraudulent attempt, your prompt reporting will help prevent this from occurring.

As your next step, you should contact the Bureau to dispute the request. To do this, in the «Dispute your credit history» section, fill in the appropriate application form. We will initiate verification of the request, in accordance with applicable law.

The contact can be deactivated (i.e., marked as no longer belonging to you) in the user account settings on the ubki.ua website, via the «My data» tab. The contact details will remain in your profile, but you will not be able to use this contact for communications or authorizations. A deactivated contact can be reactivated only after a one-time password verification.