CIBIL Score is a 3-digit number that summarizes all your credit history to keep a record and check if you are capable of a loan or not.
It is the one thing that all the banks or financial institutions will require to approve your loan.
Let us see in detail what CIBIL is and why is it important in 2022.
CIBIL: Everything you need to Know
Who maintains CIBIL?
TransUnion CIBIL is what maintains the credit record of around 600 million people and for probably 35 million businesses in India.
Full form of CIBIL
CIBIL stands for – Credit Information Bureau India Limited.
What is CIBIL?
A CIBIL Score / Credit score is a 3-digit number that determines your worthiness for a loan. All the banks and financial institutions share the credit data and history of their customers with CIBIL, which can be accessible for any other bank to check on their website.
Why is CIBIL important?
CIBIL score is a must when it comes to applying for a loan or credit. Having a good credit or CIBIL score will imply that you have a good financial report and history-making the lenders have confidence in approving your loan or credit application.
CIBIL Score also determines your borrowing limit and the interest that you will have to pay on your loan.
What is a CIBIL Score?
Now for a better understanding of what a CIBIL Score is, let us take an example.
Imagine that Ravi went for a loan from a bank.
Before the start with the procedure of loan, they will assess to check whether Ravi will be able to pay back the loan or not and to do so they go to CIBIL and ask for your CIBIL score and credit history.
Remember that the type of loan you’re applying for also matters as there are secured loans like a car or home loans and unsecured loans like credit cards or cash loans.
The CIBIL score ranges from – 300 to 900; where anything above 750 is a good score for any bank or financial institution to give a loan.
Range of CIBIL Score
As mentioned above, the CIBIL score ranges from 300 to 900. Now let us see how where you stand affects Ravi’s loan.
There is a category amongst which Ravi must fall once his CIBIL is checked.
Now here is a dissection of the CIBIL score and how many per cents of people are there in each section.
825-900 ->where we see almost 19% of people
800-824 ->where we see almost 20% of people
775-799 ->where we see almost 21% of people
700-774 ->where we see almost 21% of people
300-699 ->where we see almost 19% of people
If Ravi falls under the second last category, then his chances of getting a loan might get low and he might not be able to get a good interest on his loan. Moreover, if he is in the last category then it can be said that his chances of getting a loan are very low and it is even possible that his application for a loan gets denied.
Now, if Ravi falls in the category of yellows, which are the first three categories or sections then he will get a cheaper and fast approved loan in his best interests on it.
Having a NA or NH on your CIBIL score
Apart from these 5 sections, 2 other possibilities can be seen once Ravi’s score will be checked. These 2 possibilities are: –
NA: – This means that there hasn’t been any credit activity done by him in past few years.
NH: – This means no credit history, i.e., either Ravi is new in the credit system, or he doesn’t have enough credit history.
Even if he falls under this category, he doesn’t have to worry about it as a simple credit card or a small loan will be enough to get him on track.
Tips: How to Maintain a good CIBIL Score?
Maintaining a good CIBIL score is not a huge task, there are just a few things that Ravi or anyone will have to keep in mind to maintain or even improve your CIBIL score. A few of these things are as follows,
- EMI repayments should be on time (Note: – Do not start the repayment before the set date because it might take away a few advantages of EMI repayments.)
- Credit card payments on time
- Keep a regular check on your credit report
- Mix and opt for different types of credits
- Never give a hint of risk
- Limit your credit utilization
- Avoid multiple loans at one time or short duration of time
- Don’t just randomly do credit enquires, keep in focus on the credit you need etc.
On What Basis is the CIBIL Score Calculated?
Now, let us imagine that Ravi got a satisfactory score which is around 750 and is asked to wait for the approval.
Ravi in this waiting period gets curious about what is the basis on which his score came up to be around 750 and starts looking online.
Now you don’t have to do it as well, here are the 4 main basis on which your or Ravi’s CIBIL score depends.
- Repayment history: – By this we mean how your repayment track has been so far.
- High Credit Utilization: – The more loans you get the higher your credit utilization so try to keep a check on how many loans you apply for.
- Multiple Enquiries: – Doing multiple enquires can leave a red flag on your CIBIL profile so make sure that you are just searching for the loans you need.
- Credit Mix: – Credit mix means having loans in different spheres like personal, housing, car etc. which makes your profile more versatile for the banks.
NOTE: If you check your CIBIL score it is considered a soft enquiry and does not affect your score no matter how many times you check it.
However, if banks or any other financial institutions check your credit score or report, then it is counted as a hard enquiry and thus affects your score.
Multiple hard enquires in a short period make you credit hungry and thus demonstrate a credit hungry behaviour which impacts your CIBIL score very badly.
How to calculate your CIBIL Score?
Now, Ravi got his score checked by the bank but what for the rest of us?
Let us see how to calculate our CIBIL Score.
The official Site of CIBIL has various plans available for you to choose from based on how many times you wish to access your report. Moreover, there is a once time facility that lets you check your CIBIL score for free but just once.
Here are the steps to check the score for free, on the official site of CIBIL.
Step 1. Search for Free CIBIL score and click on Free CIBIL score and report on the official
CIBIL website.
Step 2. Get your free CIBIL score now.
Step 3. Now you will have to create a profile which first includes some generic questions like email, password, name, surname, and your identity proof.
Step 4. After this, there will be some additional things that you will need to fill in like DOB, pin code, mobile number etc.
Step 5. The last step to complete the profile will be the verification of identity proof. In which you will be asked to give an alternate number and then answer a few questions. Once you answer all the questions your profile is complete.
Step 6. Go to member login, and once you log in click on get your CIBIL Score and voila you have your CIBIL score on one side and a tabular representation on the other side of where you stand.
There are a few things that can only be availed once you purchase at least a monthly package, for example, Credit summary or score history.
Moreover, you can also buy credit reports if you wish to.
Apart from the official site of CIBIL, you can check it for free from other sites too such as Bajaj Fiserv, Paisa Bazaar, Paytm etc however it may cause you disturbance afterwards as they might try to contact you via emails or calls or messages.
You may also like: How to check your CIBIL Score for Free? and How to increase your CIBIL Score?