diff --git a/src/bin/gitlab-terraform.sh b/src/bin/gitlab-terraform.sh
index 68c5cfaee10d7129dc934eeb8866aabaf772b6f6..79056b437623b200e5b28caf2314542767c15bbb 100755
--- a/src/bin/gitlab-terraform.sh
+++ b/src/bin/gitlab-terraform.sh
@@ -94,8 +94,12 @@ export TF_VAR_CI_PROJECT_URL="${TF_VAR_CI_PROJECT_URL:-${CI_PROJECT_URL}}"
 # Use terraform automation mode (will remove some verbose unneeded messages)
 export TF_IN_AUTOMATION=true
 
+DEFAULT_TF_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/.terraformrc"
+
 # Set a Terraform CLI Configuration File
-export TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE="${TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE:-$HOME/.terraformrc}"
+if [ -z "${TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE}" ] && [ -f "${DEFAULT_TF_CONFIG_PATH}" ]; then
+  export TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE="${DEFAULT_TF_CONFIG_PATH}"
+fi
 
 
 terraform_authenticate_private_registry() {
@@ -116,6 +120,7 @@ terraform_authenticate_private_registry() {
   else
     # If we have a version older than 1.2.0, we use the credentials file.
     # This authentication method can be safely deleted when we'll remove support for Terraform 1.0 and 1.1
+    export TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE="${TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE:-$DEFAULT_TF_CONFIG_PATH}"
     if [ ! -f "${TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE}" ] && [ "${CI_SERVER_PROTOCOL}" = "https" ] && [ -n "${CI_SERVER_HOST}" ] && [ -n "${CI_SERVER_PORT}" ]; then
     cat << EOF > "${TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE}"
 credentials "${CI_SERVER_HOST}:${CI_SERVER_PORT}" {