Indian Credit Information Bureau is the prime credit information scoring and reporting company. It is also known as the TransUnion CIBIL, where CIBIL stands for Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited. It is tasked with collecting and sourcing an individual's financial information, collated under various heads. It provides an accurate CIBIL score picture of the individual's prior financial commitments, history of repayments, loans availed with all details, credit card information, its repayment history, and more.
Leading financial institutions, banks, investors, etc., use the CIBIL Credit Information Report and CIBIL score to base their risk assessment of an individual and lending decisions on whenever a loan application is made to them. The CIBIL score is not fixed and keeps changing. A better CIBIL score provides you access to loans on better terms, lower interest rates, longer repayment periods, new credit cards, and various credit products like car loans, home loans, insurance packages etc.
Did you know?
Checking your credit score on cibil.com will not impact your credit ratings adversely.
How to get your free CIBIL score?
Here is how you can quickly check your credit score for free at the official CIBIL website. Besides this site, other lenders also offer a free credit score check, e.g., State Bank of India, Paisa Bazaar, Credit Mantri, Bank Bazaar, etc.
- Firstly, you must head to the official CIBIL website and create an account.
- Your email ID is used as your user name, and you need to create a password with at least one capital letter, a digit, and a special character that is 8 to 15 characters long. Also, enter your ID type. You then need to fill out the form with your name, date of birth, ID (PAN number, Voter ID number, Passport number, etc.) Click Accept & Continue to pull up the next page.
- The authentication page asks you a question about your credit information, like your last two loan numbers, etc. This procedure will authenticate your account.
- The page prompts you to become a subscribed member. Your choices here are one month at ₹550, six months at ₹800 and one year at ₹1200. Besides unlimited login facilities to your myCIBIL account, the portal helps you with a credit score simulator that enables the right decisions to maintain your credit score and offers personal loans based on your CIBIL score.
- Save your filled-in form and proceed to the payments page to make a payment for your CIR. You can use any payment modes reflected to make the payment like debit, credit, pre-paid, cards, net banking, UPI payments, etc.
Also read: What are Debit, Credit Note and their Formats?
- Once payment is made, you need to authenticate your saved application and payment by answering at least three of five CIBIL questions related to your credit history.
- On successful authentication, you can log in to view your credit score for free or click on the Account Details section tab on the top of the page to display all your account details and credit information.
- On authentication of your ID, CIBIL dispatches your credit score and credit information report within 24 hours in PDF format. Presto, you have your CIBIL report, and all you need to know is how to download CIBIL report from your email.
- Just in case your authentication does not succeed, you can send CIBIL a physical copy of your application and get your CIBIL report by post.
- The credit report can also be downloaded as a PDF when you have a CIBIL login. However, this requires a subscription account.
What does your free credit score mean?
The CIBIL score rating generally ranges from 300 to 900, the highest possible score. To help you understand your score, here are the different CIBIL score ranges.
- A score of 700 to 800 is considered excellent for loans, and it means you have been responsible for paying your loans promptly and do not run up unnecessary credit.
- A score of 600 to 700 is considered loan-worthy. You probably have a skewed loan portfolio and a few delayed payments, and you also will need more paperwork to make sure of your loan repayments as security or collateral.
- A score of 500 to 600 is a score that is average and makes it difficult to approve your loan. You have probably accumulated red flags for card and loan payments, meaning you struggle to pay and spend too much. You should take a hard look at improving your credit score.
- Below 500 is a poor credit score and will probably never get a loan. There are risks in lending money to you as your money management is poor and your spending habits risky.
Credit Information Companies CICs like Equifax, Experian, etc., may have a different scoring model than CIBIL. Yet, your information reaches all the CICs and plays the same part in rating your creditworthiness. The CIBIL model score is 765, and this puts you in the top 35% of responsible borrowers to whom loans are considered a safe bet.
Also read: What are Debit, Credit Note and their Formats?
What happens to your free CIBIL score when you have no debt?
When you have no known debts as per the CIBIL records, your score indicates an NH or NA. It means that your CIBIL score is "not applicable" (or NA) and is because there is "no history" (or NH) to score your credit ranking. Such a situation occurs when you have never been issued a credit card or have no history of taking a bank loan. It means you have no history of taking known debts, credit loans, cards etc.
To avail a loan from banks or other financial institutions, you must prove that your credit history has been that of a good repayer of loans, and you are a responsible borrower with no doubtful or 'DBT scored' loans. Consider having a credit card, car, home, or personal loan to build your credit history and become eligible for other loans and credit products.
Credit Report features:
The CIBIL score has six main sections.
- The three-digit CIBIL score,
- Your personal information,
- Your address, telephone number and contact information,
- Your employment history and information,
- Your account status and information,
- The credit inquiry information.
These six sections are very important to check and provide important financial information. Let us do a brief study of these features.
Account Information:
The account information details show your ability to repay loans and your risk of turning into a defaulter. The lenders closely read it to determine important determiners such as monthly debt to burden ratio, your history of loan repayments, etc.
The Account Details: This section has all details about your CIBIL account information and sums up all details of credit facilities, its type, the lending institution details, the account opening date, your loan account numbers, details regarding whether it is jointly or singly availed, the last payment date, its current outstanding balance, your loan amount, and a 3-year payment record of bills and loan EMIs reflected monthly.
The Account Status: Your account status reflects several details that affect the lending decision of banks and lenders. It contains details if a loan has been settled, written off or if a suit was filed for its recovery. Such instances indicate a not-so-clean status and cast doubts on your repayment and borrowing history, thus affecting the lending by bankers, investors etc.
Also read: What are Sundry Creditors: Meaning & Examples
Here is what some of the terms in the account status mean.
'Settled' accounts mean the lender offered a partial payment settlement to close the outstanding loan account by waiving the accumulated interest and charges in the total loan outstanding. It also means a history of pending dues that are frowned upon by creditors and lenders alike.
'Written Off' loans are those where the credit card or loan amount outstanding amounts stay in the 'un-cleared' and 'no-payments' lists for a period exceeding six months or 180 days. In such circumstances, the bank or lender places the account in the "written off" list, reports it to CIBIL and reflects it in your Credit Information Report (CIR). Thus, non-repayment of bills, "settled" or "written off", adversely affect your credit report, score, and loan eligibility.
DPD: This means the 'Days Past the Due Date' in any given month when making payments on your EMIs and bills. The ideal value is 'STD' or '000' here. The classification of an asset's payments is made by certain terms discussed below.
- STD or Standard Payment Account indicates the standard parameter for the bill or EMI payments made within the provided 90 repayment days specified.
- SUB or Sub-Standard Account is a reclassified sub-standard account or SUB account when its payments are made consistently after the 90 repayment days specified.
- SMA or Special Mention Account is a reporting account created when a Standard Account repayments show a tendency to deteriorate and move to the Sub-Standard account classification.
- NPA or Non-performing asset is when there is no payment in the account for 90 days.
- LSS or Loss Account is a loan or credit card account in which the outstanding amount is reported as uncollectible and an identified loss.
- DBT or Doubtful Accounts are those SUB accounts that remain as SUB accounts for a period exceeding 12 months.
- DPD "XXX" means that your account information in that particular month is pending the bank's report to CIBIL. The DPD xxx, like DPD 090, means that the month's payment is made 90 days beyond the Due Date's 90 days period.
Enquiry Information:
Every time your application for a loan is received by a credit institution, the lenders send an 'Enquiry Information' letter to CIBIL seeking your CIBIL score, rating and history. Multiple loan applications thus reflect multiple enquiries and show an excessive short-term credit-seeking behaviour. It is why lenders frown on such requests, and this information goes against your otherwise good rating and CIBIL score.
How do you improve your free CIBIL score fast?
Here are a few simple techniques to ensure your CIC or credit information company score improves and does not suffer when your loan application needs to be processed. All the below issues adversely impact your credit score.
- Ensure you make timely payments on your EMIs and credit card.
- Always make sure the credit card bills are paid within the provided 90-day period and do not incur any DPD or 'Days past the Due Date' comments and late fees.
- Ensure all your account information provided and reflected in the CIBIL report is accurate. If inaccurate, raise the issue immediately as a dispute and reflect the same correctly.
- Never approach multiple lenders for the same loan as they all raise enquiry reports with CIBIL, which adversely affects your credit score.
- Do not borrow because you can! Many loans in your account are bad as lenders will consider it risky behaviour.
- Monitor the section that shows where you are a guarantor, co-signor, or hold a joint account, as these mean you are also liable for missed payments. Avoid this kind of debt!
- Review your credit score regularly. It doesn't reflect badly on your account. Credit history is built slow and steady. Sorry, there are no quick solutions to it!
- Don't accumulate a single kind of loan account. Always strive for a mixed loan history. For example, there are car, home, home-improvement, personal loans.
Also read: GST Input Tax Credit on Supply of Goods or Services
Conclusion
You need to maintain your CIBIL score in the good range if you wish to avail of loans or credit products from financial institutions, banks, lenders, investors, etc. There is much to learn from your credit score. If you would like to learn more on how to do so, check Khatabook for its blogs, articles on GST filing, IT returns, better accounting practices, computing your financial scores, ratings and more.
