Broadband credit check: what providers actually look at

Nobody mentions the broadband credit check until the sign-up form asks for three years of addresses, and then it is suddenly the only part of the page you can see. If your credit history is patchy that is an uncomfortable moment. You do not know what is being looked at, whether being turned down leaves a mark, or what is left if the answer comes back no. The check is narrower than most people fear, and it is not the one a mortgage lender runs. A poor result is far more likely to change the deal than to end it.

Why is there a credit check at all?

Because a monthly broadband contract is a form of credit, even though nobody calls it that. You use the service for a month and pay for it afterwards, so the provider carries the cost of serving you until the money arrives, and does that every month for a year or two.

The longer the term, the more they are carrying. A two year deal with kit included is a bigger commitment for them than a rolling monthly one, which is part of why the checks tend to be firmer at the long end of the market. It also explains the exception. Where you pay before you use the service rather than after it, there is nothing to lend and usually nothing to check.

What does a broadband credit check actually look at?

Two things, in this order: whether you are who you say you are, and whether you have paid what you owed in the past.

The identity half is the one that catches people out. Your name, date of birth and address history are matched against the records the credit reference agencies hold, and a mismatch reads as a fail even when your payment record is perfect. Being newly moved, missing from the electoral roll at your current address, or on file under a slightly different version of your name are all ordinary reasons for an application to bounce.

The payment half is what people expect: missed payments, defaults, county court judgments and bankruptcies, plus a general sense of how much credit you are already carrying. What none of it involves is a published pass mark. Providers do not disclose their thresholds, the agencies hold different data from each other, and there is no single score that every company reads, so anybody promising to tell you exactly where the line sits is guessing.

Does a credit check for broadband mark your file?

It depends entirely on whether the provider runs a soft search or a hard one, and that is a fair question to ask before you fill anything in.

A soft search is only visible to you. It is the sort used behind an eligibility checker, and it changes nothing on your file no matter how many happen. A hard search is different: it is recorded where other lenders can see it, so a company looking at your report later knows you applied. According to MoneyHelper's guide to your credit report, a hard search can stay on that report for up to two years, and applying for several things in a short space of time is what makes lenders wary rather than any single search.

There is no market-wide rule about which one broadband providers use, and honest advice here has to stop short of a blanket answer. Some check softly at the quote stage and only search hard once you commit. Others go straight to the hard search. If you have a mortgage or a loan application in the next few months, ask which it is before you apply, and treat a vague answer as a reason to ask again.

What happens if you are turned down

Less than people brace for. Being refused for something as ordinary as broadband stings out of all proportion to the size of the decision, so it is worth saying plainly that a refusal is usually a redirection rather than a door closing. It commonly arrives as one of three things.

• The deal changes rather than disappears. A deposit, a first payment upfront or a shorter minimum term are all standard ways of saying yes to somebody the system is unsure about.
• You are pointed at the credit reference agency. Providers will not usually explain their own decision, but they will tell you which agency they used, and you have a right to see what that agency holds about you.
• Another provider says yes. Different companies use different agencies and set different thresholds, so one refusal is not the market's verdict. It is one company's.

If the cause turns out to be wrong data rather than your own history, that is worth fixing at the source instead of working around it, because the same error will fail your next application too.

The options that need no contract

Where a contract genuinely is not available, or you would rather not be checked at all, there are routes that work. Each costs you something, and the cost is worth being clear about.

• Pay as you go mobile broadband. Buy the data before you use it and there is nothing to credit check. Our guide to whether a wifi dongle can replace home broadband covers what you gain and the two protections you quietly give up.
• Rolling monthly broadband. Still a contract and usually still checked, but the commitment is a month rather than two years, which some providers weigh differently. What your no contract options really are sets out the trade.
• A social tariff. If someone in the household claims Universal Credit, Pension Credit or certain other benefits, there are cheaper packages sold outside the usual deal tables. Ofcom's page on affordability of communications services is the impartial starting point, and who actually qualifies goes through the eligibility properly.

The honest caveat on all three: none of them is free. Paying as you go costs more per gigabyte than a line does per month, rolling monthly deals carry a higher price for the flexibility, and a social tariff depends on a benefit you either receive or do not.

What to do before you apply

• Read your own file first. You are entitled to see what the credit reference agencies hold about you, and it is the only way to find a wrong address or a missing electoral roll entry before a provider does.
• Ask which kind of search it is. Soft or hard, before the form rather than after.
• Get your address history right. Three years, in order, with no gaps, spelled the way your bank spells it.
• Apply once, then wait. Five applications in an afternoon looks worse on your file than one, and rarely finds a better answer.
• Ask about a deposit before you walk away. Plenty of refusals turn into a yes with money upfront, and nobody offers it unprompted.

The last thing worth doing is the one people leave until the end, which is finding out what is actually available where you live. Coverage is decided street by street rather than town by town, so the only reliable answer comes from your own address. Our availability checker is the quickest way to see the list, and how switching actually works covers what happens once you have picked one.

Frequently asked questions

Do all broadband providers run a credit check?

Almost every provider selling a monthly contract does something, because you are being billed after you have used the service rather than before. What varies is how deep it goes and whether it touches your credit file at all. Pay as you go and prepaid deals are the exception, since there is nothing owed at the end of the month, and that is the whole reason they exist.

Will a broadband credit check hurt my credit score?

A soft search will not, because only you can see it. A hard search is recorded on your file where other lenders can see it, and MoneyHelper says a hard search can stay on your report for up to two years. Which one a provider runs is not standard across the market, so if you have a mortgage or loan application coming up, ask before you fill anything in.

Can I get broadband with bad credit?

Usually yes, though not always on the deal you first picked. Providers turn down far fewer people than the worry suggests, and a poor result more often produces a deposit, an upfront payment or a shorter term than a flat no. Where a contract genuinely is not available, mobile broadband bought as you go needs no check at all.

Why was I refused when I have never missed a payment?

The commonest cause is not your payment history but your identity failing to match. A recent move, a missing electoral roll entry, a name spelled differently from your bank records or a gap in your address history can all produce a fail on a file that is otherwise spotless. Checking what the credit reference agencies actually hold about you usually finds it in minutes.

Does switching provider mean another credit check?

Yes, in most cases. You are taking out a new contract with a new company, so their checks apply the same as they would to anyone signing up. That is worth knowing if you are shopping around, because applying to several providers in quick succession can leave several searches on your file rather than one.