In our last post, we wrote about what is CIBIL score and CIR. We even suggested you to check your report once in a while. Now you can apply for a report online as well. The process is simple and you can get your score via email quickly. By doing so, you can rectify the unexpected errors, if any, in the report. Knowing your score and seeing your report will also make you conscious about the way you handle your financial life.
Credit Information Report (CIR) contains the basic information about your credit history and any other financial related information that is available from CIBIL. Based on this, you will be assigned a score. The components of Credit Information Report are:
Personal information
Your name and details of ID proofs are shown here. Your PAN, Passport, Drivers License, Voter ID etc. appear in this section.
Contact information
Your recent address, phone number and email address given by you to the banks and lenders will be shown here. The address category tells whether it is permanent or temporary and official or residential.
Employment information
This section shows your occupation and income. The most recent information as provided by the lender for a particular credit account will be shown here.
Account information
This is the most important section of the report, which shows the details of your existing loans and other credit facilities. Along with this, the details such as name of the lender, types of credit facility, dates of opening and closing (if applicable) of each account, current balances, status of the accounts (i.e., amounts due if any) is given here. Month by month record of payment details for last 36 months will also be shown here. Name of the lender, account number, account type and type of the ownership (i.e, single, joint etc.,) will be given here.
Explanation for some of the terms used in Account status.
| Term | Definition |
| Credit limit | It is the maximum amount of credit that you are allowed to withdraw from your credit card. |
| High credit | High credit indicates the highest amount of credit used in a month in the entire span of that credit card. It is given only with credit card and overdraft accounts. |
| Sanctioned amount | This is the amount disbursed to you other than as credit card and overdraft facility. |
| Days past Due (DPD) | It indicates how many days a payment on a particular account is late for that month. Here anything other than ‘000’ is viewed negatively. Last 36 months payment history is provided here.STD – denotes standard. It indicates the payments are made within 90 days. If an account is remained overdue for more than 90 days then it is classified as Non-Performing Asset (NPA) by lenders.SUB – denotes sub-standard. It is an account which remained NPA for up to 12 months.DBT – denotes doubtful. It is an account that has remained Sub-Standard for a period of 12 months.LSS – denotes loss. It indicates the account has been identified as loss and remained noncollectable. |
| Control Number (CN) | This is the unique number given to a CIR. This is required if you have to raise a Dispute Request. |
Along with the above, any collateral provided by you for a secured loan (if any) and the value of such collateral will also appear in this section.
Another important component that may appear in the account section is ‘Written off’ or ‘Settled’. If you ever failed to repay the credit and defaulted, then it will appear in your report as ‘Written Off’; if you have made a partial payment with which the lender agreed to close your account then it will appear as ‘Settled’. Because of a financial crisis, if you have a long overdue then your lender may agree to settle your account for something lesser than what you really owe them. But think twice before accepting any such offer. When you are in distress such offer may appeal to you, but such settlement of account will stay as a blackmark in your report for next 7 years. As the lenders access your credit report to check your credit worthiness any such remark – ‘Written Off’ or “Settled’ – will be viewed highly negatively and reduces chance of any further credit facilities.
Enquiry information
As and when a lender enquires about your CIBIL report, it will appear under this section. This section of the report clearly shows how many lenders have enquired so far about your credit history and for what reason. For example, assume if you applied for a home loan of Rs. 15,00,000. Then the enquiry section shows the name of the lender with whom you applied for the loan, date on which the lender has accessed your credit report, enquiry purpose (here it is home loan) and the enquiry amount (here it is Rs. 15,00,000).
The chief difference between ‘Account’ and ‘Enquiry’ is, while the former denotes your present financial obligations the latter shows the enquiries done by the lenders for providing any more credit facilities. Having too many open accounts i.e, financial obligations to fulfill, is viewed by the lenders negatively; and at the same time, too many enquiries from various lenders within a short span of time will also be viewed negatively as it shows your ‘credit hungry’ behaviour.
Understanding and knowing about your credit status and credit history will enable you to keep an eye on your financial track. Timely payment of dues will avoid any negative remarks on the report.
Appendix: How to obtain CIR and Credit Score from CIBIL
Update: You can now obtain CIBIL Credit Score and Credit Report for free.
You can get the CIR for just Rs. 154. You can access your CIBIL transunion score (CIR comes along with this) by paying the required fee of Rs.470. You will first have to fill the request form along with the details like name, address, date of birth and address proof. While applying for CIR, you should provide valid ID proof such as photocopy of PAN card, passport, driving licence, voter ID, ration card no, etc. The address proof should be in your name and it should not be more than 3 months old (except passport) from the date of application.
For online application, payment can be done through net banking or through credit card. After making the payment you have to answer 3 to 5 questions related to your loans and credit cards. When you successfully finish the online payment you will get a unique CIBIL registration ID and transaction ID as a confirmation of your online payment. If authentication is successful, then the credit score and CIR will be emailed to you within 2 to 4 days. It is that simple!
(If by mistake, the payment is done more than once for the same transaction then you are required to send an email to CIBIL at info@cibil.com or you can call at +9122-61404300.)
If you opt for the offline mode, then you have to download the request form, take its printout and then submit the same along with all the required proofs. Here you have to take the demand draft (DD) in the name of ‘Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited’ payable at Mumbai and send it to the following address.
Consumer Relations: Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited, Hoechst House, 6th Floor, 193 Backbay Reclamation, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021, India.
One response to “How to read your CIBIL credit report?”