To be a smart borrower, you need to frequently check credit score. This will give you necessary insights into your financial profile and how lenders perceive your creditworthiness. Your CIBIL score is one of the many credit scores that lenders rely on when assessing your profile.
When you regularly check credit score, you can understand how and why it changes based on your credit behaviour. But in order to take swift action to maintain and boost your score, you need to know how to read the credit report. To know how to download and read your credit report, read on.
Credit score checking services are now easily accessible online. What’s more, you can download your credit report too. For instance, you can perform these actions via the official CIBIL website. To check credit score, you need to first register on the CIBIL website. The steps are as follows:
Check credit score and other details pertaining to your credit profile. You can also download your credit report.
To download your previous credit reports, you can visit the history section. Under that, you can access and download reports.
An important thing to remember is that you can avail a free CIBIL score checking service on the CIBIL website. This is only available once a year. For unlimited access, you will need to select a subscription and then you can check credit score details online without restriction.
Your credit report by CIBIL contains detailed information about your financial profile. More importantly, it lists the different types of credit you have availed. Usually, there are five key sections of a credit report that you need to pay attention to. These sections are:
Your CIBIL score is a 3-digit number that ranges from 300-900. Credit rating agencies calculate your credit score based on the information they receive from banks and other financial institutions by using online CIBIL score calculator. The closer your score is to 900, the better your creditworthiness. According to CIBIL, you should ideally have a CIBIL score over 750 to avail new credit.
Under this section of the CIBIL credit report, you will find your personal information such as your birth date, name, ID number, and gender. Your contact information will include telephone numbers and up to four addresses.
Your employment details are also essential in assessing your overall creditworthiness. CIBIL gets access to your employment details through the information provided by non-banking and banking institutions. This will include either your annual income or your monthly income.
When checking your credit report, pay close attention to this section. It contains information about your existing credit, its type, and information about lenders. Along with that, you can also track your credit accounts with regards to start date, last payment, balance payment, ownership information, loan amount, and monthly records of payments.
Whenever you apply for a new credit, lenders do a hard inquiry into your profile. These are recorded here, regardless of the outcome.
An important fact to remember while checking the credit report is to flag any and all discrepancies you notice. This will help you shield it from any damages due to fraud.
Now that you know how to calculate CIBIL score and how you can easily download CIBIL report anytime, make sure that you thoroughly read and understand the content. Besides CIBIL, you can check credit score details online with other service providers too. For instance, Bajaj Finserv offers a free CIBIL score checking provision that is quick and easy to use. Here, you can check your CIBIL score for free in minutes and get a personalised Credit Health Report.
Disclaimer: This article was published in association with Bajaj Finance Limited.