Skip tracing
Reading a credit-linked address history
An address history is a list of moments when someone told an organisation where they lived. Reading it well means reading the dates, not just the addresses.
By Mike Gillam, Managing Director
Published · Reviewed
A credit linked address history is not a record of where someone has lived. It is a record of the occasions on which they told an organisation where they lived, and that organisation reported it. The difference sounds academic and is the entire basis for reading one well.
Every entry has a date attached to an event: a finance application, an account opened, a detail updated, a default lodged. The addresses are only as good as the events that generated them, so the dates deserve at least as much attention as the addresses.
How the record accumulates
Credit providers, utilities, telecommunications companies and other reporting organisations supply information to the bureaux, and the bureaux link it to an individual identity. Over time this builds a sequence: address given in 2016 on a car loan, updated in 2019 when a power account opened, updated again in 2023 on a credit card application.
Gaps are ordinary. A person with no credit activity between 2019 and 2023 has no records from that period, and moving house does not itself create one. Nothing about the record guarantees continuity, which is why a bare list of addresses without dates is close to useless.
Judging recency and confidence
Read the date, then the source event. An address confirmed last month by a credit application the subject completed themselves is strong. An address last touched in 2017 by a data refresh is weak, whatever position it holds in the list.
Look for corroboration across sources. The same address appearing from two unrelated reporting organisations at different times is materially better evidence than one appearing once. Where a property record or a company registered office matches, confidence rises further.
Watch for the mail forwarding address. Accountants' offices, PO boxes and family homes appear regularly. They are real addresses associated with the person and are not where the person sleeps, which matters a great deal if the purpose is service of documents.
Treat conflicts as information. Two current looking addresses may indicate a recent move captured inconsistently, a separation, a rental plus a family home, or a second identity match. Each has a different next step, and none is resolved by picking the one at the top.
Identity matching, and the risk of the wrong person
The bureau links records to an identity using name, date of birth and prior addresses. Common names, name changes on marriage, transliteration variants and parent and child pairs sharing a name and an address all create linkage risk. A history containing an address the subject has no plausible connection to is a signal that two people may have been merged.
Before acting on a result, particularly one that will lead to a knock on a door, confirm with a second identifier. The approach is set out in verifying an identity without breaching privacy.
The rules that govern access
Credit information is not public register data. It is governed by the Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2020, which restricts who may access it, for which purposes, and how it may be used afterwards. The distinction between these two categories of source is the most commonly misunderstood point in this area and is set out in public register data versus credit reporting information.
Two practical consequences. First, the permitted purpose has to exist before the request, not be constructed after it, and it needs to be recorded with the search. Second, the information may only be used for that purpose. An address obtained to serve documents in one matter is not available for an unrelated file.
Using the result
In collections, the address history sets the contact sequence and evidences the enquiry made before escalation. In litigation and process serving, it is the basis for service and, where service fails, for an application supported by evidence of reasonable enquiry. In both cases, the record of what was searched and why is part of the output rather than an administrative afterthought.
The source detail sits on the credit bureau source page and the workflow on the credit-linked address searches page. Access is issued to verified professional users through the request access page.