Experian credit score changes 2026: what the illion merger did to your number

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An Experian credit score in Australia is now produced by a merged bureau. On 1 April 2026 illion's credit reporting body became part of Experian, the scoring model changed, and most people's number moved even though they did nothing. Azure Home Loans helps Australian borrowers read the new combined file — and the Equifax one — before a home-loan enquiry is lodged. General information only; not a credit assessment.

What changed on 1 April 2026

CreditSmart, published by the Australian Retail Credit Association, is the industry-body source on this. Until the end of March 2026 Australia had three consumer credit reporting bodies: Experian, illion and Equifax. From 1 April there are two. illion and Experian operate as a single Experian credit reporting body.

If a lender checks an "Experian" report from that date, they are using the new combined report. CreditSmart is also plain that it may take lenders a while to update the names on letters, so a reference to illion in something a lender sends you now generally means the new Experian file.

The old Experian report still exists as a historical document you can request, but CreditSmart states it is no longer being used by any lenders. That one sentence is the whole operational change.

For the longer explainer of how scores are built and what Equifax still does, see credit scores explained. This page is only about what the merger did to the Experian number.

Why your Experian score moved

The merged bureau scores files on a new model. Secondary reports of Experian's own transition material, including WeMoney's explainer, call that model CBCX. WeMoney attributes the following to Experian's modelling:

• about half of Australians see the number rise and about half see it fall
• the average shift is around 25 points lower
• around 15% move by more than 100 points in either direction

CreditSmart, independently, tells consumers a score change "shouldn't be anything to worry about" and is "not unusual" because the calculation changed. Those two sources agree on the mechanism even where they describe the scale differently.

The useful implication is the one most comparison pages skip: a movement across 1 April 2026 is a break in the series, not a verdict on your behaviour. Treat a pre-merger number and a post-merger number as two different instruments. Do not average them, and do not assume a drop means you became riskier.

The new Experian score bands (and the old ones)

Finder updated its consumer band table on 3 March 2026. Finder uses Experian as its own score source, so this is a first-party consumer view of the new bands, not a third-party guess.

The consumer consequence is the whole story. The Good band widened downward by 125 points. A person whose number did not move at all can now sit in a better-sounding band on an identical file. A person comparing a January 2026 score against a September 2026 table can misread their position in the other direction.

That is why "what is a good Experian credit score" is a worse question in 2026 than it was in 2025. The honest answer is the band label printed on the report in front of you, dated after 1 April.

Is the Experian scale still 0–1,000?

Published Australian sources still disagree, five months after the change. That disagreement is the gap this page exists to name rather than paper over.

No Australian source we have found reconciles this. Comparison sites are still running the old good-starts-at-625 table. WeMoney is describing a different instrument. Finder is describing new bands on the old 0–1,000 scale.

What a borrower should do with that: ignore any website table, including ours, the moment it disagrees with the band printed on your current Experian report. If your report shows a number above 1,000, you are looking at the CBCX scale WeMoney describes and Finder's table does not cover. If it shows a number in the old 0–1,000 range with a "Good" label at 520, you are looking at Finder's widened bands. Either way the label on the report is the one a lender's system will also see.

We have not called Experian Australia to adjudicate the scale, and we are not going to pick a winner. An honest "sources disagree, here is how to tell which one you are looking at" is more useful than a confident guess.

What is on your new Experian report

CreditSmart is specific. The new report contains all the information from the old illion report plus some information from the old Experian report, including credit enquiries.

That last clause is the one that matters on a home-loan file. Enquiries that lived only on the old Experian report are now sitting on the file every Experian-pulling lender sees. They are not new applications. They are migrated history. An assessor who does not know they were migrated can read a cluster of old enquiries as a recent burst of applications.

If you applied for credit on both bureaus over the years, the merged file is more complete than either of the old ones. That is the point of the merger. It is also why pulling the new report before you apply is worth an evening: you want to see the combined enquiry list the same way an assessor will.

Corrections still run through Experian or the credit provider, free. Experian's correction process is the starting point; escalate to AFCA if a provider refuses.

Equifax vs Experian after the merger

Equifax did not merge with anyone. Its 0–1,200 scale and its bands are unchanged. A 700 at Equifax is still "good"; a 700 at Experian is still "very good" on Finder's table. The merger did not make the two numbers more comparable. It made the Experian number less comparable to its own past.

Lenders do not all pull the same bureau. Some majors lean Equifax. Some use Experian. Some pull both. There is no public list that stays current, and a broker's panel knowledge is the practical way to know which file a specific lender will actually open. Checking only the bureau you have an app for is how people walk into an assessment with half the picture.

The OAIC's credit reporting page is the statutory baseline: you have a right to access your own report, to correct it, and to place a ban. Moneysmart remains the cleanest consumer framing of what a score is and is not.

If you placed a credit ban before 1 April, check it

This is the part almost nobody in the mortgage-content market is writing down.

A credit ban stops a credit provider from accessing your report, which is the main practical protection after identity theft, a lost wallet or a family-violence situation. CreditSmart's FAQ on pre-April Experian bans is easy to misread. It says that a ban placed on the old Experian report "would probably have been on the old Experian report, which is no longer being used by any lenders" and that "you don't need to do anything about that ban."

The second sentence means the old ban is moot — you do not need to manage or remove it. It does not mean you are still protected. Lenders are now pulling the new report. A ban that sits only on the retired report does not travel with them.

If you still need a ban, place it on the new Experian report. A ban you also placed on Equifax is unaffected. Experian's consumer line for merged-file queries is 1300 784 134.

What this means for a home loan application

The merger does not change serviceability, deposit, or a lender's own scorecard. Those are still what decide most files. What it changes is the picture an Experian-pulling assessor sees.

Three practical consequences, from the broker side of the desk:

A post-merger score drop, on its own, is not a reason to delay an application. If the rest of the file is clean and the drop sits inside the "about 25 points" Experian modelled as typical, the assessor is looking at the same repayment history they would have seen in March. Waiting three months for the number to "recover" from a model change wastes time you could spend on the things that actually move an approval: genuine savings, a tighter living-expense figure, a smaller credit-card limit.

A drop of more than 100 points is worth a file review before you lodge. That is the tail Experian's modelling flagged — around 15% of people. Pull the new report, look for unfamiliar accounts, migrated enquiries that look like a cluster, and repayment-history codes that do not match what you paid. Correct what is wrong before a lender enquiry lands on top of it. See what credit score you actually need for how lenders use the number once the file is open.

Newly visible illion enquiries can look like a burst of applications. This is the single most useful check on the new file. If you applied for a car loan, a credit card and a phone plan on the old illion bureau over several years, those enquiries now sit together on the Experian report. They are dated, and an assessor who reads dates will see the spread. An assessor who only sees a count may not. Having the report in front of you means you can explain the history rather than discovering it in a decline letter.

Policy gates still sit in front of the number. Most lenders will not proceed past a recent default or an enquiry cluster regardless of the score band. Those gates differ between lenders far more than the scores do, which is why the 90-day file clean-up is about the entries, not the digit. For how declines actually happen, see why home loans get declined.

If you want the file read against current lender policy rather than a published table, send an enquiry or start with the mortgage readiness quiz. Borrowing capacity is a separate question; model it on the borrowing power calculator once the file is in order.

How to get your new combined report free

You are entitled to a free credit report from each reporting body every three months. Checking your own file is a consumer access event, not a credit enquiry, and it does not lower the score.

1. Order the Experian report from Experian's consumer credit report page. Request the full report, not a score-only view from an app.
2. Verify your identity. Driver licence or passport, current and previous address, date of birth.
3. Read the enquiry list and the 24 months of repayment-history codes before you look at the number. Those two sections drive most score movement and most assessor questions.
4. If you held a credit ban on the old Experian file and still need one, place it again on this report.
5. Pull Equifax separately from mycreditfile. The merger did not touch it, and a lender may pull either bureau.

If a large unexpected change appears, CreditSmart's advice is the right one: get the new report and check the entries, then use Experian's correction process where something is wrong.

What to do if your score dropped more than 100 points

Do the file review first, not a refinance, not a credit-repair contract, and not another application.

Look for accounts you do not recognise, enquiries you did not make, and repayment codes for months you paid on time. Those are correctable, free, through the credit provider and the bureau. A credit-repair firm cannot remove an accurate listing, and paying one to "fix" a model-change movement is paying for a process that is already free.

If the entries are correct and the number simply moved with the model, decide from the rest of the file. A clean repayment history, a modest enquiry list and a deposit that clears 80% LVR will get past more lenders than a 100-point recovery on an otherwise unchanged file. If the entries are not clean, the credit-file help page walks through the 90-day tidy and the hardship alternative to missing payments.

Azure Home Loans can read both reports with you before any lender enquiry is lodged. This page is general information for Australian readers, current at 8 September 2026, and not personal credit advice. Bureau models and lender policy change; confirm against your own current report.

FAQs

Did Experian and illion merge in Australia?

Yes. CreditSmart records that from 1 April 2026 illion's credit reporting body and Experian operate as a single Experian credit reporting body. Australia now has two consumer credit reporting bodies, not three. Equifax is the other.

Why did my Experian credit score change in 2026?

Because the calculation changed. The merged bureau scores the combined dataset on a new model. CreditSmart says a movement is not unusual and should not be assumed to mean your creditworthiness changed. Secondary reports of Experian's modelling put the average shift at about 25 points lower, with around half of people up and half down.

What is CBCX?

The name secondary reports, including WeMoney, use for Experian's unified post-merger scoring model. Experian's own consumer pages do not always use the acronym, so you may not see it on your report. The useful fact is that the model changed on 1 April 2026, not the brand name.

What is the Experian credit score scale in Australia now?

Published sources disagree. Finder's March 2026 table still uses 0–1,000. WeMoney reports that CBCX has no fixed upper or lower limit and that most scores sit between 0 and 1,200. Read the scale and the band label off your own current report rather than converting a number through any website table.

What is a good Experian credit score in 2026?

On Finder's post-merger table, good is 500–699, great is 700–799 and excellent is 800 and above. That is a wider good band than the pre-merger 625–699. For a home loan, a clean file in the good band or better usually means the credit history is not what decides the application — serviceability and deposit are.

Is my old illion credit score still used?

No. There is no separate illion credit reporting body for lenders to pull. Request the new Experian report, which contains the old illion information. An illion number you were tracking is a historical figure, not a current one.

How do I get my new combined Experian credit report?

Order it from Experian's consumer credit report page. You are entitled to a free report every three months. Checking your own file does not lower the score. For merged-file queries Experian's consumer line is 1300 784 134.

Does the merger affect my Equifax score?

No. Equifax did not merge. Its 0–1,200 scale and bands are unchanged. Pull that report separately, because a lender may use it instead of or as well as Experian.

Is a credit ban I placed before 1 April 2026 still active?

Not on Experian, if it sat only on the old report. That report is no longer used by lenders. Place the ban again on the new Experian report if you still need the protection. A ban on Equifax is unaffected.

Does a lower Experian score after the merger hurt my home loan chances?

Not by itself, and not if the rest of the file is unchanged. Lenders assess the entries, serviceability and deposit. A typical model-change movement is not the same thing as a new default or a cluster of fresh enquiries. A movement of more than 100 points is worth reviewing the file for errors before you lodge.

How many credit reporting bodies are there in Australia now?

Two: Equifax, and the merged Experian entity. Any guide still naming illion as a third current bureau is out of date.

Why is my Equifax score still different from my Experian score?

They have always been different instruments, with different datasets and different scales. The merger made the Experian number less comparable to its own past. It did not make the two bureaus more comparable to each other. Compare band labels, not raw numbers, and only within the same bureau.