The process whereby a financial institution lends a sum of money to an individual or a business entity for the purpose of (a) house buying [a mortgage], (b) a major purchase (a loan), (c) general expenses (a credit card or overdraft).

Credit Agencies
Companies used by lenders to establish the financial situation of an individual or company.

Credit Averse
If a borrower has been bankrupt or has outstanding county court judgements they would be described as credit adverse.

Credit Check
Where an enquiry is made on the credit history of an applicant, normally by reference to one of the major credit agencies such as Equifax, CCN or Westcott Data.

Credit Checking Agency
A service used by lenders to establish a level of risk involved in leading money.

Credit File
A record held by a credit reference agency on an individual or a company. You can inspect your own credit file by writing to the agencies.

Credit History
The history of a borrowers financial record.

Credit Limit
The maximum amount of borrowing allowed on a credit card at any one time.

Credit Rating
Rating used to establish risk involved in lending money. This is used in conjunction with credit history and financial status.

Credit Reference Agency
Companies that hold credit information one file.

Credit Scoring
A generalised way of assessing the credit application, carried out by scoring the answers given on an application. It is important that there are no missing answers on an application otherwise the result for the question becomes a negative.

Credit Worthy
A description of someone who is deemed by a lending institution to be a low risk to lend to (colloquial term). As with blacklisting, there is no such thing as a ?perfect credit score?, or someone who is ?completely credit worthy?, as there is always some element of risk involved when loans are made, and different institutions use different criteria when evaluating such risk.