Three companies keep a credit file on you in New Zealand: Centrix, Equifax and illion. Each scores you a little differently, most on a scale that runs to 1,000, and lenders usually check one or two of them when you apply for credit. So “your credit score” is really two or three scores that mostly move together.
The honest answer about bands
Each bureau publishes its own bands, and lenders layer their own rules on top, so treat any table as a map rather than a contract. As a working guide for NZ scores out of 1,000:
| Band | What it usually means for borrowing |
|---|---|
| Around 700 and up | Strong. Most of the panel competes for you, at their sharper rates |
| Roughly 500 to 700 | Middle New Zealand. Plenty of options, priced on the detail in your file |
| Roughly 300 to 500 | Harder. Fewer lenders, higher rates, and the detail matters a lot |
| Below that | Most mainstream lenders decline, and the honest move is usually to rebuild first |
Two people with the same score can still get different answers, because lenders read the file behind the number: what happened, how recently, and what you have done since.
What is actually on your file
Your credit file records credit accounts and limits, repayment history month by month, enquiries made when you apply for credit, defaults (generally listed once an unpaid amount is seriously overdue and reported), and public records such as judgments or insolvency. It does not record your salary, your savings, or whether you have ever been declined.
Repayment history is the heavyweight. A default from three years ago that you paid matters far less than two missed repayments last month.
What moves the score
Up, over time: paying every credit account on time, keeping card balances well below their limits, letting old clean accounts stay open, and applying for credit rarely and deliberately.
Down, quickly: missed repayments, defaults, maxed-out cards and a burst of applications in a short window. That last one surprises people, and it is why scattering loan applications across lenders to “see who says yes” is the classic own goal. Each application can land a hard enquiry on your file. Our guide to quote enquiries versus hard enquiries explains exactly what gets recorded when.
Checking your own score is free and safe
You can request your own file from each bureau free of charge, and checking it never affects the score. It is worth doing once a year, and always before a big application: files contain mistakes more often than you would hope, and a wrong default is fixable with a correction request.
Where BorrowClub fits
When you check your rate with BorrowClub, one application covers the panel, which is the structural fix for the too-many-enquiries problem. And because every offer shows its whole cost, a middling score stops being a mystery charge: you see exactly what your file prices at, in dollars, before you decide. If the honest answer is “rebuild for three months first”, that is the answer you will get. Start with our guide to improving your credit score.