How Can I Check My CIBIL Score?
The Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd. Or CIBIL is the leading agency offering credit scores and reports to people. The agency sources financial data like credit card or loan information of people from their banks and other financial organizations. This data is presented as Credit Information Report (CIR) or CIBIL credit report. Essentially, this is a three-digit number that summarises your credit history.
Here are the steps to check your CIBIL score
We recommend that you go to the official CIBIL website to find your score. It is the most reliable and offers more detailed information about your CIBIL score.
Log on to the official website of CIBILClick on Get Your Free CIBIL ScoreFill in the details and click on ACCEPT & CONTINUEThe screen will have the Dashboard openClick on the options available on the screen to check various things including the CIBIL score
The CIBIL website also offers various paid options to get more information, like the CIBIL report. You may customise the report as per your requirement. However, there are several other websites — especially the ones related to financial institutions — which offer the credit score for free as well. You can simply run a search on the Internet with the string ‘free CIBIL score’ or ‘free CIBIL score check’. You will find several websites that offer the score for free. Open any of these websites and fill in the required details to check the CIBIL score.
Range of CIBIL Score
A CIBIL score ranges between 300 and 900. If somebody’s CIBIL score is 900, please give yourself a pat on the back. If you have a CIBIL score of 750 and above, this is considered highly among institutions.
What the different ranges of CIBIL score mean
NH/NA– A person with no credit history will have their CIBIL score marked as NA/NH. This means “No History”/ “Not Applicable”. This happens when a person never had a credit card or has never taken a loan. It is advisable to take credit as it helps to build a credit history and have access to products available on credit. 350-549– This credit score range can be bad for you. This is a result of late payments of EMIs or credit card bills. With this credit score, it becomes difficult to get a credit card or secure a loan as it makes a person high risk of becoming a defaulter. 550-749– This is a fair credit score to have but this range will get only a few lenders to offer credit. The interest rate on the loaned amount may be high as well. This generally happens when a person is not regular with their payments and struggling to pay their credit card bills or EMIs on time on most occasions. One must take measures to improve their CIBIL score to get loans from more sources and better deals as well. 750-900– This is the ideal range to have. This gives the idea of impressive credit history. This person is regular with the payments. More banks will offer credit cards and loans to this person as he is at the lowest risk of becoming a defaulter.
Factors that affect your credit score
Payment History- 30%Credit Type and Duration- 25%Credit Exposure- 25%Other Factors- 20%
What makes your CIBIL score smile
Paying credit card bills or EMIs on or before the last date of paymentPaying the credit card amount in full everythingMaintaining spotless financial recordsAvoid over-leveragingHaving a balanced secured and unsecured creditMaintaining a low credit utilization ratio of the actual limit
What makes your CIBIL score cry
Making multiple credit inquiries simultaneously to several banks and other financial institutionsIrregular payment behavior of EMIs, credit card bills, utility bills, loans, etc.Turning a defaulter by not paying EMIs and credit card billsHaving a huge amount of unsecured creditHaving a high credit utilization ratioTurning a defaulter by being a guarantor for friends or familyHaving loans through credit cards onlyHaving no or very low credit historyClosing old credit accounts that have a long historyFrequent requests towards increasing credit card limit
Advantages of maintaining an excellent credit score
Eligible for loanCredit cards with extra benefitsDiscount on auto and home loan interest ratesPreferential pricingAbility to request a higher credit limit on cardsAbility to request prepayment optionsPossibility of waving or negotiating on processing feesOption to negotiate for better deals
Let us know if this article helped you to know “How can I check my CIBIL score?” It is to be noted that the CIBIL score changes from time to time depending on an individual’s financial data. Thus, it is important to check the score regularly and maintain a good score to reap the benefits.
