Check Your Canadian Credit Reports for Accounts You Don’t Know
Matthew Leo · September 23, 2026 · Guides
You do not need to pay a monthly monitoring fee to see your Canadian credit reports. Equifax and TransUnion both provide free online access, and checking your own file does not lower your credit score.
Get both reports. A lender may report an account or inquiry to one bureau and not the other, so checking only one can leave a gap.
Start from the government page
The safest starting point is the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s credit-report page. It links directly to the free Equifax report and TransUnion Consumer Disclosure, and it lists mail and phone options if online identity verification fails.
Watch for paid upgrades during sign-up. A bureau may offer monitoring or other products, but you are entitled to a free report. TransUnion calls its full free report a Consumer Disclosure.
Save a copy from each bureau with the date in the filename. You will need the original if an item changes while you dispute it.
Check identity details first
Begin with the names, addresses, phone numbers and employers listed on each report. An old address is not automatically suspicious, but an address you have never used deserves attention. The same goes for a name variation that does not match any version of your legal name.
Do not stop after the first error. Identity details can be wrong because of a reporting mistake, a mixed file or fraud. Write down every item you need to question.
Review accounts and payment history
For every credit card, loan, line of credit and collection account, compare:
- Lender: Do you recognize the institution or retailer?
- Opening date: Were you applying for credit at that time?
- Balance and limit: Are they reasonably close to your records?
- Status: Is an open account marked closed, or a paid account shown overdue?
- Payment history: Are payments marked late when your statements show they were on time?
A lender may appear under a legal or parent-company name that you do not immediately recognize. Search your own statements and contact the lender through a phone number from its official website before treating the account as fraud.
Read the inquiry section
An inquiry shows that an organization accessed your file. Some are account-management or non-credit checks, while others follow an application for new credit. TransUnion says its Consumer Disclosure includes the full inquiry history, including checks that businesses do not see in the shorter commercial version.
Focus on applications you did not make, especially if they are followed by a new account. An inquiry alone does not prove identity theft, but it gives you a date and company to contact.
If you find an account you did not open
- Contact the lender using independently verified details. Tell its fraud department that the account or application is not yours. Do not use a number from a suspicious email or text.
- Contact both credit bureaus. Ask them to add a fraud alert and start disputes for inaccurate information. The federal agency says the bureaus must correct errors for free.
- Report the incident. Use the National Fraud Reporting System. If you are a victim, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre also recommends contacting local police.
- Protect affected accounts. Change reused passwords, secure your email first and contact your bank or card issuer if money or payment details are involved.
- Keep records. Save case numbers, dates, letters and screenshots. Check both reports again after the dispute is resolved.
Some provinces or territories also allow a security freeze, which blocks lenders from accessing your report until you lift it. Availability and procedures vary, so confirm eligibility directly with both bureaus before relying on it.
If the problem is an ordinary mistake
Gather statements, receipts or letters that show the correct information. Submit a dispute to the bureau and contact the lender that supplied the data. The bureau will check with the lender; if the lender confirms the entry, you can escalate through its complaint process and add a free consumer statement to your report.
Checking once is useful, but it is not permanent protection. Review both files again after a move, a lost wallet, a data breach or an unexpected credit rejection. If someone later offers to recover money for an upfront fee, read Mapletechie’s guide to refund-recovery scams before responding.
Sources
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: Getting your credit report and credit score, updated July 1, 2026
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: Checking your credit report for errors and fraud, updated July 1, 2026
- TransUnion Canada: Consumer Disclosure
Tags: Credit Reports, Identity Theft, Fraud, Equifax, TransUnion