How to Check Your Loans and Debts?

Today I want to talk about financial hygiene. More specifically, about how to make sure that your reputation as a borrower is spotless and that there are no debts behind your back that you are not even aware of.

Many people consider checking their credit history or debtor registers something optional, necessary only when they are about to take out a new loan. But I encourage you to look at it differently. Regularly checking your loans helps you:

• Detect fraud in time. Unfortunately, cases where criminals take out loans in someone else’s name are not uncommon. The sooner you discover this, the fewer problems can accumulate.
• Avoid unpleasant surprises. Being denied a mortgage or car loan because of an old, long-forgotten microloan that you thought had already been repaid is a very unpleasant situation.
• Have peace of mind and confidence. Knowing the state of your finances gives you confidence. You know for sure that everything is in order.

I recommend making a review of your financial obligations an annual habit. It takes only 15 minutes.

How to check whether you have any loans is the main question. There are two main methods that complement each other.

First, you can check government registers, where overdue debts subject to enforcement proceedings are recorded.

Second, you can contact a credit bureau, where the complete history of your relationships with banks and microfinance organisations is stored, even if you always make your payments on time.

So, let’s look at all the tools available to us.

This is a government database maintained by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. It contains information about people who have outstanding financial obligations under court decisions. Information is added to the URD after enforcement proceedings are opened to enforce a decision. You can check the Unified Register of Debtors for free to see whether your information is included in the database.

This is a logical continuation of the previous point. If a creditor obtains an enforcement document, such as a court decision or a notarial writ of execution, enforcement proceedings may be opened, and information about credit debts is then included in the URD.

These are non-governmental organisations that collect, store and process information about how you fulfil your credit agreements. Why is this necessary? Before providing money, banks and other creditors contact credit bureaus to assess risk. A credit bureau report will show all your loans, card limits, overdue payments and the number of credit history enquiries made by other banks. It is the most complete “medical record” of your financial health — your credit register.

There are specialised platforms, such as YouControl and OpenDataBot, that collect information from various government open registers, including debtor registers. They often provide convenient search tools and additional analytics.

Let’s take a closer look at the Unified Register of Debtors for credit debts in Ukraine. It is important to understand that “credit debtors” is not entirely accurate terminology, but the meaning is clear. The URD does not include simply people who have missed a payment, but those who have lost a court case and failed to comply with the court decision. Overall, this is the main government database of credit debtors.

What can you see there? The debtor register contains public information about the debtor:

• full name;
• date of birth;
• amount of debt;
• enforcement proceeding number;
• information about the state enforcement officer;
• existing restrictions, such as a travel ban or seizure of property.

In other words, this is an official list of credit debtors. Checking this register will show you specifically those debts that have reached the “hands” of the state.

You can check your debts through official sources in several ways:

1. Through the official Ministry of Justice website. Go to the search section of the portal. For an individual, it is enough to enter your surname, first name, patronymic and date of birth. This will help you check whether you have debts subject to enforcement proceedings.
2. Through chatbots. This is the most convenient option. For example, the “Monitorno” chatbot in Telegram. It is connected to the Ministry of Justice register and allows you to quickly find out whether you have any outstanding debts.
3. Through aggregator websites. They generally provide the same information, but often with additional features, such as automatic monitoring of changes.

Now you know how to check whether you have loans involved in ongoing enforcement proceedings.

Even if you make all your payments on time and are confident that you have no overdue debts, it is still worth checking your credit history periodically. If you want to know whether you have a debt under a loan, the simplest solution is to contact one of the credit bureaus.

Credit bureaus allow you to obtain a credit report free of charge at certain intervals in accordance with current legislation and the rules of the particular service. So, how can you check your loans?

1. Choose a credit bureau. There are several in Ukraine, but the largest are the Ukrainian Bureau of Credit Histories (UBKI) and the First All-Ukrainian Bureau of Credit Histories (PVBKI).
2. Submit a request. You can do this online through the bureau’s website, mobile app or chatbot. You will need to verify your identity using an electronic signature, BankID or another method.
3. Receive your report. After your request is processed, you will receive a detailed report. It will list all your loans, borrowings, card limits, payment history (whether payments were made on time or were overdue), as well as all enquiries from financial institutions regarding your credit history over the past few years.

If you are an active borrower, you can order a monitoring service that will notify you about any changes to your credit history. This is a great way to protect yourself from fraud.

So, your check has revealed that your credit bureau report contains a loan you never took out. First of all, do not panic. Follow this plan:

1. Do not ignore it, but do not pay immediately either. If it is an error or fraud, you do not need to pay someone else’s debt.
2. Collect information. Find out which institution issued the loan and obtain the enforcement proceeding number.
3. Contact the creditor. Submit a request to the bank or microfinance organisation that issued the loan, asking for a copy of the credit agreement. You have the right to make sure that the signature is not yours.
4. Dispute the information with the credit bureau. If there is an error in your credit history, submit a request to dispute the information with the bureau. They will investigate and correct the information if necessary.
5. Contact the police. If fraud is confirmed, be sure to file a report with the cyber police. You can do this online.
6. Contact the enforcement service. If you have been included in the register by mistake, for example, because the debt has already been repaid but the information has not been updated, you need to contact the state enforcement officer who handled your case and provide proof of payment.

If it is a real debt that you simply forgot about, the best solution is to contact the creditor immediately and agree on a restructuring plan to stop penalties and late-payment charges from increasing.

As I always say, it is better to prevent a problem than spend time solving it later. Here is a security checklist:

• Check your credit history regularly — at least once every six months, to make sure there is nothing unexpected.
• Set up notifications in Дія — the app may offer services that notify you about changes to your credit history. Before using them, check whether this feature is currently available. If someone tries to take out a loan in your name, you will find out about it immediately.
• Some credit bureaus offer additional credit history protection services, including temporarily restricting creditors’ access to your credit history.
• Do not share personal information — never give anyone your card expiry date, CVV code, SMS passwords or online banking login details.
• Keep your passport and taxpayer identification number secure — do not post copies of them in public sources, and if they are lost, immediately contact the relevant authorities to report the loss.

Keeping track of your financial obligations is now an essential part of financial security. Regularly checking your credit history and information in official registers takes little time, but it can help you identify errors in time, prevent fraud and avoid unpleasant financial consequences in the future.

Translation into English was created with the help of artificial intelligence.