Here’s how you can read your CIBIL report like a pro

There is much more to your CIBIL report apart from the score that it reflects. We might focus only on the CIBIL score and know about its importance but a CIBIL report has much more information.

Here are some simple tips that can help you to get a better understanding of CIBIL report.

CIBIL TransUnion Score:

This is the first section of the report. An individual’s score ranges from 300-900 and lenders use this score to decide whether to offer a loan to the concerned person on not. Obviously, higher the score, higher are the chances of lenders accepting your application. This section also indicates the percentage of applicants that are sanctioned loans (in the last one year) based on the particular band that they fall under.

Sometimes the score may not be between 300 and 900; do you what it can mean?

NA or NH means that either you have no credit history or are new to credit system. It also implies that you haven’t had any credit activity in the last few years or you have no credit exposure. This is not a bad indication.

TIP: The information in this section indicates not only your CIBIL score but also the likelihood of your application being accepted.

Personal / Contact/ Employment Information:

This information is given under three separate heads. This is fairly simple; the personal information section contains information as provide by the lenders to CIBIL. Here the name, date of birth, PAN number, passport details, voter ID and driver license details are mentioned. Letter “e” mentioned against any detail indicates that the information has been provided by the lender.

Contact information lists up to four addresses (permanent/temporary/office), email ID and phone numbers of the person as provided by the lenders. Employment information section has details about your employment and income at the time of applying for credit. So in case of two different loans this can be different.

TIP: In this section, there is not much to understand except to make sure that the information mentioned is accurate.

Account Information:

This is by far the most important part of your Credit report. This contains information about all the open loans and credit cards that you have. Details about the lender, type of credit (home loan, auto loan, credit card etc), date when the account was opened, date of last payment, whether the account is held by an individual or jointly, amount of loan, amount of overdue (if any), total outstanding and a monthly payment record for last 36 months. A red band against the information indicates that the particular information is disputed. After a letter is received from the lender (clarifying about the situation), the information may or may not be removed depending on what the lender has to say.

TIP: This section gives a brief summary of your open debt; go through it carefully to find out about any lapses that may have occurred on your or the lender’s part. Try and resolve the dispute ASAP. This section is useful for you also to get an accurate picture of your debt situation.

Enquiries Information:

Enquiry made by any financial institution into your credit score is listed under this head. Details such as name of financial institution, date, loan size and type of loan are mentioned here. This also impacts your final CIBIL Score.

TIP: Only hard enquiries (those made by financial institutions) are mentioned here; enquiries made by the individual for his own score (soft enquiry) are not mentioned here.

Meanwhile, below are few terms that can help you in understanding your credit report better.

DPD: Days Past Due is an indicator of by how many days the payment is late in that month. More Than Standard (STD) or zero “000” is viewed negatively.

CN: This is the Control Number mentioned at the top of the report and is useful if one wants to raise a dispute.

Settlement Amount: If a loan or a credit card payment is disputed, the borrower and the lender may agree at an amount that will be paid by the borrower; the rest is written off by the lender.

Written off Amount: When a loan amount is written off that means the lender has no hopes of recovering this amount from the borrower. Principal or total (principal plus interest) may be written off by the lender.

(About the author: Rajiv Raj is the Director and Co-Founder of www.creditvidya.com.)

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