Credit Information Bureaus and 'CIBIL'

A credit bureau is a repository of credit information of all customers of its members, which comprises banks and financial institutions. CIBIL (Credit Information Bureau of India Limited) is one such organization that collates credit information contributed by its members and disseminates it to lenders, helping them in their credit-decision-making and lending process. CIBIL houses only credit information i.e. information on loans and credit cards. It does not have any details of customers’ savings accounts or fixed deposit accounts. Members share this credit information of their customers with CIBIL month on month so that CIBIL’s database is updated. This information is then used by credit underwriters to make effective credit decisions.
Therefore, with proper financial planning and by maintaining a good track record of repayment of dues for loans / credit cards, you will be able to build a good credit history for yourself. This, in turn, may help you in getting future loans / credit cards easily or on better terms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CIBIL the only credit bureau in the country?
Is CIBIL a list of defaulters?
Are all customers’ names reported to CIBIL?
On what segments does CIBIL provide a credit report?
What is the content of a CIBIL report?
How is a credit report helpful to credit underwriters?
How can a customer maintain a good credit history?
Who contributes credit information to CIBIL?
Do customers have access to CIBIL’s report through CIBIL’s website?
Can a customer’s name be removed from CIBIL’s database?
If a loan/credit-card application is rejected, will it be reflected in the credit report?
If a loan is denied to a customer by one bank on the grounds of the CIBIL report, will it be denied by other banks too?
If a customer’s family member has defaulted, will it affect the customer’s status in CIBIL’s records?
How many days does it take to update a customer’s payment status?
A customer complains that CIBIL’s report generated by X bank / financial institution does not show the details of other loans / credit cards that the customer maintains with other banks and/or financial institutions.

Is CIBIL the only credit bureau in the country?
As of September 2008, CIBIL is the only credit bureau in India. But some other credit bureaus are planning to set up in India soon.

Is CIBIL a list of defaulters?
No. CIBIL maintains account information of various loan customers and credit card customers, whether they are defaulters or not. The information comprises their name, address, monthly repayment track record, outstanding amounts, etc.

Are all customers’ names reported to CIBIL?
Only borrowal accounts, i.e. those customers who have availed of a loan or a credit card from a CIBIL member are reported to CIBIL. Details of liability accounts such as savings, fixed deposits and recurring deposits are not shared with CIBIL.

On what segments does CIBIL provide a credit report?
CIBIL is a repository of credit information and in the consumer segment it provides information on the various loans availed of and cards held by an individual from a member bank. Its commercial report covers the credit availed of by non-individuals.

What is the content of a CIBIL report?
CIBIL only reports loan and credit-card information such as repayment track, loan type, amount outstanding, loan amount disbursed, various dates, etc. The report also contains a customer’s personal information like name, address, date of birth, phone number(s), passport number, voter’s ID number, PAN, etc. In a commercial credit report the inputs are similar but include some additional details pertaining to the commercial entity like legal constitution, registration number, etc. The credit report does not provide any opinion or comment on whether a loan should be extended to a customer. It reports the facts that its member banks and financial institutions have reported.

How is a credit report helpful to credit underwriters?
The credit report shows account information such as repayment record, defaults, type of loan, amount of loan, etc. of the customer. This information facilitates prudent decision-making when the credit underwriter processes the loan/credit-card application.

How can a customer maintain a good credit history?
A customer will be able to build a good credit history by proper financial planning and by maintaining a good track record of repayment of dues for loans / credit cards.

Who contributes credit information to CIBIL?
The information is contributed by banks and financial institutions that are members of CIBIL.
Do customers have access to CIBIL’s report through CIBIL’s website?
No, at present customers do not have access to CIBIL’s website to be able to generate CIBIL’s report

Can a customer’s name be removed from CIBIL’s database?
Member banks contribute to CIBIL on a monthly basis data of all their customers who maintain a loan/credit-card account with them. Hence a customer’s name cannot be removed from CIBIL’s database.

If a loan/credit-card application is rejected, will it be reflected in the credit report?
A credit report reflects only credit information reported by member banks. Hence, details of loan applications are not available in the credit report. However, information about the number of times a CIBIL report has been generated can be obtained from the “Enquiries” section in the CIBIL Report.

If a loan is denied to a customer by one bank on the grounds of the CIBIL report, will it be denied by other banks too?
Approval or rejection of a credit application depends on the bank’s policies. Rejection by one bank on the grounds of the CIBIL report might not imply rejection by another bank.

If a customer’s family member has defaulted, will it affect the customer’s status in CIBIL’s records?
The CIBIL report has information of loan/credit details of the borrower only. Therefore, for a retail customer, it would not matter if someone in his/her family has defaulted. If the customer’s repayment track record is okay, his/her credit score will not be affected by that of his/her family members.

How many days does it take to update a customer’s payment status?
Customers’ account information is sent to CIBIL month on month for update into CIBIL’s database. It takes generally 45-60 days from the month-end to update the record in CIBIL’s database.

A customer complains that CIBIL’s report generated by X bank / financial institution does not show the details of other loans / credit cards that the customer maintains with other banks and/or financial institutions.
CIBIL’s report generated by X Bank will show all the loans/cards relations the customer has with various banks, but without the identities of the other banks being indicated. In other words, X Bank officials will not know the name of the other banks with which the customer has loans/cards relationships. The names of the other banks will appear as “Not Disclosed”. This has been done to ensure privacy. However the customer can contact CIBIL at info@cibil.com with the enquiry control number of the credit report (provided by X Bank) to find out the details of the member bank that has reported a particular transaction.

Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions About Cibil Solved

There are many questions arising in the minds op people regarding CIBIL, its origin, its working criteria and so on. Here are some frequently asked questions about CIBIL with their appropriate answers:

1. What is Cibil?

CIBIL is the first and only credit information bureau of India which assembles and distributes information regarding credit accounts that a borrower has to its member institutions in form of credit information report. It contains the information of all the credit facilities availed by an individual and a firm.

2. Who are members with Cibil?

Almost all leading banks, financial institutions, credit card companies, Housing finance organizations, Non banking financial institutions and state financial corporations are members of cibil.

3. It provides credit reports on which sections?

It supplies information on consumer segment as well as commercial segment. The consumer department covers the credit facilities availed by an individual borrower and commercial department covers the facilities availed by proprietorship firms as well as private limited and partnership companies.

4. What is the main function of cibil?

Main function of the bureau is to gather information on all the credit accounts maintained by a customer and firm and provide it to it’s member institutions on request.

5. What is a credit report?

Credit report is record of customer’s credit history. It included the details of all the loans and other credit facilities obtained by a customer from any of the member institutions.

6. What information is available in credit information report of a borrower?

A credit report of a borrower has the following information:

• Personal information- Name, mailing address, date of birth, driving license no, pan no, voters id no and passport no.
• In case of a firm, it includes Registration Number
• Details of all the credit facilities that a borrower has
• Repayment history of all the accounts
• Amount overdue on an account if any
• Number of enquiries made by the members in past 12 months

7. This report is accessible to whom all?

Credit report can be seen by only the member institutions who have submitted their complete data to cibil. Disclosing this information is illegal.

8. Can an applicant view his/her own CIR?

The answer to this question is NO. But you can get a copy of your credit report from the member, if the institution has taken out a copy of your report.

9. Does the approval of a credit facility of a borrower depend on his credit report?

Cibil only provides the previous and current track record of your payments. It has got nothing to do with the decision on lending funds to you.

10. If any credit application is rejected, would this also be reflected in Credit report?

No, rejection is not updated in credit report because banks do not provide this information to cibil. Read answer 6 for more details of what is reflected in your credit information report.

What Banks Inform To Cibil – How Cibil Credit Score Gets Impacted By It

A CIBIL report basically is accurate information on the credit payment record of a borrower. CIBIL report is maintained by credit information bureau of India limited also known as CIBIL. This report is specially meant for all the member institutions of credit to help them know the repayment and financial status of any borrower who approaches them for a credit facility.

Credit report consist the information about all the loans and credit cards that an individual or a firm has from any of the member institutions. All this information is provided to CIBIL by the banks and other financial and non financial institutions who are members with CIBIL.

Banks uses this report to decide whether a credit facility should be given to a particular borrower or not. Financial institutions can judge the future prospects of payments by viewing the credit report of a customer.

Whenever a customer applies for a loan, credit card or insurance policy by a member, the institution firstly checks the repayment track record history of the individual in credit report.

If the payment status is regular and active then the application is eligible for fast approval and on a lower rate too. But at the same time, if therepayment track shows bounces and settlements in the cards and loans then the application may get rejected.

Sometimes a defaulter is also granted the credit facility, but at a very high rate of interest. This is because, any lending institution will not want to give money without getting it recovered. And so, the loan is approved on a higher rate so that, even if the customer fails to repay the loan after some months, bank has already recovered good amount of money through interest. Yourcredit report greatly affects your CIBIL score.

Reasons for Zero Score:

If there are no matches for any credit facility extended to you in CIBIL report then the credit score would be Zero or there would be no score.

Reasons for Low Score:

• Short age of reported accounts: If the average age of accounts reported in the report is reasonably short, then it means that all the credit exposure to the borrower is recent and the score would be low.
• If the recent repayment history in borrows account is not good or he has not made the payment due.
• Large no of enquiries – If there are large no. of queries made recently by the member institution for any credit facility applied by the customer, it lowers down the score.
• Large amount of credit exposure extended to customer recently will lead to a low score in CIBIL.
• Too many accounts showing in CIBIL report implies that the customer has very large credit exposure, exceeding his financial capability ofrepayment.

Reasons for High Score:

• If the average age of accounts reported in the report is more than 1 year, then you will have a good score.
• If the repayment history is good with no bounces then the score would be good.
• If there are less number of enquiries by the member institution for any credit facility applied by the borrower in last 12 months.
• If the amount of recent exposure is not too large.

Impact Of Bad CIBIL Score On Your Loans

Credit information bureau of India keeps the records of all the information on loans and credit card payments attained by an individual.

This information is maintained for all member institutions and banks of cibil and is made available to them whenever they need it. The bureau gets this data from its members only and this data helps the banks in decision making process, whether a loan should be given or not, credit card should be issued or not to a particular customer.

On the basis of the records of the payments that a customer has made towards its accounts, cibil issues a score to every individual and this score is known as cibil score.

This score plays a very important role in fetching you a high or low interest rate from your lender on a secured or unsecured loan. Secured loan is something in which you put something as a guarantee and an unsecured loan is a one, wherein nothing is kept as a guarantee and the funding is based on your income financials.

Cibil score impacts secured and unsecured loan in equal way. People might think that, they are keeping their property papers as a guarantee, which is a big deal and so cibil score would not matter much. But this thinking is wrong; you need to keep in mind that your lender would not grant you funds, if you are a defaulter.

• It would not matter, whether you are going for a secured loan or unsecured loan; the interest rate would be high if your cibil score is low and rate would be low if the score would be high.
• You may have to face rejection in both the cases, if the cibil score is below average. No point would be taken into consideration for a secured loan, as they are considered to be less risky.

The policies of a secured loan are different from that of an unsecured loan, and so the funds granting decision would depend on several factors. There might be a possibility that you may get some waivers on your case, if something is coming out of the policy, but cibil rules are same for both secured and unsecured funding with no much difference.

Learn How To Read CIBIL Report

CIBIL report is a record of all the loans and credit cards that a customer has. It consist the entire payment history of all the credit facilities obtained by a borrower.

A sample of credit report has the following features:

• Personal Identification Information – Name, Date of Birth, Residential Address, Pan Number, Voters Id Number, Passport Number and Driving License Number.
• Company Information – Company’s Name, Date of Incorporation, Firm’s Address and Pan Number of the company in case of a firms report.
• Lender Deatils (If Any) – Details of all the accounts running with the member lenders.
• Payment history of all the accounts.
• Default and payment over due’s in a particular account.
• Number of enquiries made by the different members to extend a credit facility in past 12 months.

Here is a sample of a credit report. Please note that this report is purely fictional and has got no relation with any individual or a firm. This sample would help you understand a CIBIL report in a proper way.

Let us discuss this sample report in detail:

• In the starting you can see the personal details. We do not need to discuss this in detail as it is very much understood.
• Second thing we see is the score. The score ranges from 100-900. High score is imparted to a borrower with good payment record. So, just by viewing the score we can judge that the customer’s record is clean as the score is high.
• Summary in the sample shows the total number of accounts maintained, highest exposure amount, current balance of all the accounts and date of 1st loan taken and last loan taken.
• Then we see the details for every particular enquiry. 1ST one shows that it is a personal loan, sanctioned on 08.02.2008. The loan amount is 500000 and the current balance is Rs.467768/-. Since there is no amount overdue, it means that the loan is clean.
• Similarly we can see the details for second and fourth account. There is no amount overdue either of them and so the payments are regular.
• Let us come on the third account now. Here we can see that the current balance is zero. This indicates that the borrower has made the complete payment of the loan. There is also a date reflecting in closed column (15.03.2006). This shows that the loan was closed on this date and as the difference between the open date and closed date is 3 years, it means the loan tenure was 36 months.
• XXX shows that there is no updation for the following dates and 000 shows that the payments are made regularly.
• In the end you can see the details of the enquiries made by different member banks done for extending a credit facility to the customer. There is a complete information on for which credit facility the application has been processed, for what amount and on which date. There is a complete record from first enquiry to the last enquiry made.
• A sample of CIBIL report never shows the name of the member by which enquiry has been made or from which a loan or card is running.

How To Resolve Your Credit Disputes With Indian Banks

Many people are having credit card disputes with their lenders. It is not just one bank, with which people are facing problems, but almost all Indian banks are having their credit card holders and many of them are having disputes with the banks on their card.

Some have made the payments, some have not. There are cases in which even after making the payments, the banks are torturing borrowers for further money. The reason is lack of system on both the ends; borrowers and the lenders.

Sometimes, it is because of your payment habits that lead to the dispute and sometimes it is because of the bank’s policies that lead to disagreement between you and your bank. The main Indian banks in which people face troubles on a large basis are: Citibank, and HSBC And Standard Chartered Bank. Generally, people who are having credit cards with any of these banks are seen to have many problems than the other bankcard holders.

Mentioned below are some tips to resolve credit card disputes with these banks:

• Reason could be any, but the procedure is the same for all the banks, when it comes to settling down your dispute. The first step you must take is; contact your lender immediately and tell them about your case. You shouldnot delay in informing about this and updating your lender with your account as it would just keep on adding up more charges towards your account.
• You should maintain the records of each and every communication that you had with your lender. Try to interact and communicate through mails and letters, so that you have a proof ofall steps taken by you and the bank cannot deny anything afterwards. This is important; many a times, the customer care executives promise you about some action and later they simply deny it. Written record would prove to be helpful.
• If situation is a major one, one can also appoint a professional lawyer who can take care of all the legal issues and fight for your case. The most important thing is, you must keep your payments updated. From your side there shouldnot be any dues and you must be able to present all your monthly statements whenever needed.
• If you have some pending dues, then calculate it with the help of your lending bank and pay that amount and your dispute would immediately settle down. The bank will issue a no due certificate to you and if according to you; you have madeall the necessary payments according to the monthly bills and still your account is not clear then you shall go according to the process mentioned above and within a span of 15-30 days, your dispute will get settled.

Learn How To Improve Your CIBIL Score

Credit information bureau of India limited maintains a track record of all loans and credit cards that a customer has of its member banks and financial institutions. It keeps a record of an individual payment status of all the credit accounts and keeps it collated for its members.

All this information is provided to CIBIL by its member institutions only so that a track is there for every customer who applies for a loan or credit card from any of the member.

On the basis of the performance in making the payments regularly or irregularly a specific score is given to every individual on its CIR (credit information report). This score is called CIBIL credit score. The score ranges from 100-900 and has a great impact on the rating of a borrower.

It helps the banks in deciding whether a particular person should be given a loan or a credit card or not. But the final decision is taken by the banks official only. CIBIL rating just reflects the previous as well as current state of the borrower.

A good score can get many benefits to the borrower like; Fast disbursal of loan, waiver in processing fee, loan on lower interest rate, high sanction limit for card etc. Whereas, If an individual has a low rating, he may not get loan and even if he gets the loan, it would be on a higher rate with small sanction amount and less tenure.

And so, it is very important to have a high CIBIL rating to overcome these problems and enjoy all the facilities that you want to avail.

Improve CIBIL Credit Score

Now that you have read all this, you must also be wondering how to increase your CIBIL rating. Here are some tips to improve your CIBIL score:

• First and the most important thing is to pay all your loan installments on time. And especially when you have more than one loan, you may find it difficult to organize and repay. Make sure that you do not miss to pay even a single payment toward your loan.
• Plan a budget for your family so that you are eligible to take a loan. It should not be like your case gets rejected after the processing.
• Make it a point that one of your cheque is bounced on the loan and credit card. Cheque bounces are considered as blunder and badly affects your CIBIL score.
• Always make the minimum payment due on your card and also make the complete payment on the card. The regular you are on your card payments, the more influencing image you gain.
• Do not unnecessarily keep on applying for cards and loans and overburden yourself. Only apply for any credit facility when you actually need one.
• Avoid going for settlements by making your payments regular. Do not be a non performer for months and get your account termed as a write off account. If there is a write off account in the CIBIL, then it will badly affect your score. Your score will be badly low.

What Is CIBIL And What Are It’s Impacts On Indian Borrowers?

Credit information bureau of India ltd was formed in 2000 by RBI rules and guidelines. It’s main work is to gather and store the information about all the loans and credit cards that a borrower has. This information is stored in a special type of a report called credit information report. The information in credit report is provided to CIBIL by it’s member banks and financial institutions only and it provides this data to its members on request.

Members of credit bureau are all leading nationalized and private banks, financial institutions, non banking financial institutions, housing finance corporations. There are 2 segments on which it maintains and provides the data. A consumer and A commercial. Consumer signifies an individual and commercial refers to a firm. It could be either a Proprietorship or partnership firm or a private limited company.

The main information provided by CIBIL is:

• Personal information like Name, Date Of Birth, Address, Pan number, Passport number, Voters id number and Driving licence number
• Pan number, Address and Date of Incorporation in case of a firm
• Details of all the loans and credit cards availed by the borrower from any of the member banks
• Repayment record of the credit facilities
• Details of all the closed loans and cards
• Number of enquiries made by any member banks to extend a credit facility to the borrower

All this information is not available to every person. Only the member banks who have submitted all its information is allowed to get the information on request. An individual does not have a direct access to his/her CIBIL report.

CIBIL has impacted the Indian borrowers both negatively and positively. Let’s discuss the cream in detail:

• Many people with a good credit report gets extra benefits like; Fast disbursal of the loan, Waiver in processing fees, Low interest rate and bigger sanctions ( big amount).
• Any default made be a borrower gets updated with CIBIL and because of this default they are unable to get any other credit facility. Credit bureau thus has helped India borrowers by forcing them settle their defaults from the banks, if they wish to avail other facilities.

CIBIL has some negative things too:

• Many people complain about update of the wrong information about their accounts in CIBIL because of which they are not able to get any other credit facility from member banks. This is because, all this information is provided by the members and there may be some wrong details that get updated in the system.
• Also, if there is any default in the borrower’s account, it remains in CIBIL for 7 years. So, even if there has been a settlement it does not necessarily get updated in the system.

Poor, Good And Excellent Cibil Credit Scores

The main job of credit information bureau of India limited is to maintain and preserve the data of an individual credit accounts history and present it to its member bank whenever needed on special request.

Cibil score is a score, which is issued to every individual by cibil depending upon the past and present status of monthly installment payments on all the secured and unsecured loans; credit cards availed by an individual. The score is divided into three parts- poor, average and good. In simple words it can also be called minimum and maximum scores.

Below mentioned points will explain in detail, what is a good, poor and excellent cibil score:

• The cibil score of a person ranges from 100 to 900. The higher the number, the higher would be your cibil score and vice versa. Anything ranging in between the two is considered to be a good cibil score.
• Excellent cibil score – if your payment track record is clean and clear and you have not missed any of your payments on even a single account; your cibil score would be excellent. An excellent cibil score will be from 700 to 900. Anything between this; may it be 800, 750, etc is treated as a high score and the maximum is 900.
• Good cibil score – a score is considered to be a good one if it ranges from 500 to 700. This is generally when people have not been able to make regular payments on their accounts and have missed one or two installments in the whole tenure but the delinquency string is less than 30 days and also the default is not current. But this does not mean that you have missed many monthly payments. You will get a good score only if you have paid all the dues on time except some of the payments and that too if they have not been stretched for too long.

There are people who just not pay the payments on time or simply just bounce their payments cheques because of lack of funds. In such cases, you get a very low score and your cibil score would be between 100 to 499. Such score is often calculated in case of non-payments or default history of anindividual.

Get Your Credit History Record From CIBIL Score Check

Cibil score is a 3-digit code, which is issue by cibil to every individual on the basis of his/her performance on making the payments of all the loans and credit payments.

Credit information bureau of India limited has the information on the current as well as closed loans and credit cards of an individual with their repayment history. Depending upon the how the customer has been in paying the installments, a certain score is given.

This score is divided into 3 parts: High, good and low. Cibil score check is not that easy and just a phone call away. There is a certain procedure that has been fixed through which you can get your credit status from Cibil.

Mentioned below are the ways by which you can get your credit status and also check your cibil score:

• Ask the bank from which your loan account is running to provide with your 9 digit control number and then you can call cibil and know your cibil score and also you can get the entire credit status of your accounts.
• If your bank refuses to give you your control number saying that it’s confidential, you can ask for your credit report and your lender will send you a copy of your credit report through mail. This is the easiest way to know your credit status, as your report would contain every information that you need to know.
• You can also approach cibil directly on +91 -22 6638 4600 / 2281 7788 and ask for your control number or credit report to check your cibil score. The credit bureau of India cannot refuse to give you this information as according to CICRA, every individual has a right to view his or hercredit report from cibil.

This is how you can check your cibil score on your credit report.

Tips To Find Your CIBIL Score

Credit information bureau of India limited has started CIBIL scoring system for all the reports generated. A credit score basically is based on the entire history of the payment and non payment status of an individual. It starts from 100 and goes up to 900.

Every customer’s credit report is examined in detail and status is checked for all the credit facilities availed by him, before deciding a score for the applicant.

If a borrower has good credit record i.e. he is regular in all the payments and there is no amount overdue in any of his account and no write off account, his score would be high. At the same time if the credit history is poor and the payments are irregular, score would be low.

This plays a very important role in decision making of a member banks for granting a credit facility to the borrower.

Here are the points on basis of which CIBIL imparts you a score:

1. For Zero Score:

• If there are no enquiries by the member banks in your account for a credit facility, you will have a zero or no score.

2. For High Score:

• If the average period of all the accounts in more than one year.
• If the repayment history of all the active as well as closed accounts that you have is default free i.e. there is no bounce in the payments.
• Recent credit exposure should not be very high so that it does not over cross your payment capabilities.
• And lastly if the number of enquiries made by the members are not too large.

3. For Low Score:

• When average age of all the accounts is relatively short that 1 year or even 6 months, then you are considered as over leveraged. So make sure that there are not many recent loans or cards in your account.
• If the recent repayment history is not good and you bounces in the loan payments and card payments.
• Too many enquiries made by different members in recent 3 months and especially in the current month.
• If you have a bad account or write off account. Also if there is any settlement in any of the card or any other credit facility.
• If the recent credit exposure extended by the banks is high.

CIBIL Credit Score

You can find your CIBIL score by the following ways:

• You can always ask the bank in which you have applied for the loan or card to tell you the same. Whenever you apply for any credit facility, the first step that the banks take is, get your CIBIL report generated and your score is reflected in the report only.
• You can apply for a credit facility from any of the member banks and can find your score as soon as your CIBIL gets updated in the system.
• Lastly, you can call up credit information bureau of India limited on their helpline no; 180-224-245 and ask for the help. Depending upon the policy, it may or may not provide you with the information.

Check Cibil Ratings Online

Cibil Report as of now is not available online and you could only get a copy by calling Cibil Bureau. Following are their contact numbers.

Cibil Bureau contact details of Cibil:

Helpdesk Number: 1800-224-245

Telephone Number: +91-22 6638 4600/ 2281 7788

Email Address: info@cibil.com

CIBIL Reporting Procedures Of Foreign Banks In India

Credit information bureau of India limited is the body that keeps and preserves the data of a consumer and commercial loans and credit card payments history. This information is provided to cibil by its member banks and financial institutions only.

The information is made available to the members on special request and only those members can get the records who have submitted all their information with Cibil. Almost all banks are members with the credit bureau and presently, there are 143 members in total, out of which 77 are the banks itself.

All these banks report to cibil on a regular basis the data of their borrowers and the monthly updates on the loans and credit card payments.

Mentioned below are the cibil reporting procedures of Citibank, Deutsche bank, SCB and HSBC:

• Generally all the members follow a similar pattern only; otherwise it would become very difficult for the bureau to keep a track of all the database of different members. All the banks in which the names of all the existing clients are there maintain a monthly sheet and all the new borrowers, who have become a part of the bank’s family, are added in the list every month.
• It depends on the bank, whether they want to update this sheet weekly or in 15 days or at month end only, but the report to cibil is sent on the last date of every month. This is because, on this date it is easy to track the whole month’s work and also in the last days of the month, the banks calculate the total business and it becomes easy for them to update this sheet.
• Now, when all the additions are done, the sheet is sent to credit information bureau of India ltd. This data is now transferred into the system of the credit bureau by its staff members. This is not all, banks update the status of every individual monthly status on payments (whether a customer has made the payment or not etc) to cibil by updating the same in the sheet that has been maintained.

So, this is how Citibank, deutsche bank, SCB and HSBC report to cibil.

Know Borrower’s Credit History From CIR (CIBIL Information Report)

CIBIL information report is maintained by CIBIL for helping all the banks and financial institutions who are members of the bureau. The credit bureau keeps the information about the credit history of an individual or a firm compiled together in a database which is issued to the banks on request.

The main objective of maintaining these records is to check the entire past and present status of the borrower in respect to the loans and credit cards availed by the borrower.

CIBIL report contains information on all the loans and credit related advances that a borrower has. The complete track of payment and default is available in the credit report of an individual.

This report also has the records for all the loans that have closed, credit cards write offs, settlements on the loans etc. And also, the information on closed loans is kept for 7 years in the report.

CIBIL information report plays a very important role in deciding the loan amount to be sanctioned to the borrower. It also help banks decide whether a particular customer should be given a loan or not.

The borrower information in CIBIL report is not open to everyone.

CIBIL can issue one’s credit information report on special request only to the following:

• Banks who are members with CIBIL and planning to process your loan application for approval or credit card
• Insurers who consider you for availing an insurance policy and also for renewal of the policy
• Sometimes, CIBIL report is also required by big employers who wish to appoint you for a job or project on contract basis
• Any government organisation for knowing your financial status etc.

Credit information report keeps the full record of credit activities of a borrower.

The main features of a credit report are:

• Personal information- By personal information we mean identification details. This includes your name as well as your pen name, current mailing address and previous one if there was any, Date of birth, all other identification numbers like passport number, pan number and voters ID no.
• Details of all the loans and credit cards that have been reported by the member institutions to CIBIL.
• Loan type, sanctioned amount, date on which loan was sanctioned, date of last payment received, current outstanding amount, date on which loan was closed, overdue amount past the due date if any.
• Credit information report also shows the highest sanction amount on your credit card. It means the highest amount of credit extended to the borrower at any point of time during the tenure of the account.
• Write off details- If the borrower fails to make the payment for 180 days on the trot for the account, then the bank has to write that account off as a bad debt and is reported in CIBIL as Write off account.
• Credit information report shows the complete list of enquiries made in past 12 months for any credit facility application made to the member by the borrower.

Your Name On CIBIL’s Defaulter List?

CIBIL defaulter list is a list of all the people with default histories.

It is divided into two groups:

• Defaulters of Rs 1 crore and above
• Defaulters of Rs 25 lacs and above and who have mad this defaulter by their own will.

All these people have suit filed against them by the banks to which they have not made the payments. All this information is provided to the credit bureau by various member banks and financial institutions following the directions of RBI. As soon as a bounce in the payment is reported, the banks get the information updated in the defaulter list of CIBIL.

The Defaulter List contains:

• Name of the director’s of the companies in whose name default has been made and case has been filed by the bank.
• Names of Financial institutions and state financial corporations looking for recovery of the amount they have lent to the borrower.

This list is available on the website of CIBIL and can be viewed by everyone. The credit bureau is not responsible for the accuracy and authenticity of the information as this information is provide to bureau by the banks and other members. One can approach the concerned institution from which his loan or card is running, if there is some fault in his status for all the clarifications.

Tips To Remove Your Name From Defaulters Database

Here is how you can remove your name from CIBIL Defaulter Llist:

• First you should pay the entire amount pending on your account and ask for a no due certificate from the bank. You can also get a settlement done if the amount is too big. Many timesthe banks and other financial institutions settle a big default in less payment as full and final.
• Opt for any of the above mentioned options and take a no due certificate form the bank and then ask your lender to get the information updated in the CIBIL, so that the bureau gets your name removed from its defaulter list.
• You can file a complaint against your bank, if no action has been taken for 15 days. Once the bank has settled on an amount to be paid as full and final and have issued you a no dues certificate, the bank should on it’s own update thisinformation with CIBIL. But if this has not been done even after a request from your side, legal action can be taken.
• Approach CIBIL directly and sent a copy of the certificate issued to you to the credit bureau. Ask the department to remove your name from the defaulter list because you no more have any pending dues on your account.

Importance Of Excellent, Good, Fair And Poor CIBIL Rating

CIBIL or credit information bureau of India limited is a body that gathers and preserves the data of all the credit facilities availed by a borrower with their status. This information is kept for all the leading banks and financial institutions who are members with the bureau. The main motive behind maintaining this data is to help the member banks in decision taking process regarding lending a loan or credit card to anyborrower.

CIBIL keeps and presents this information in form of a report called credit report. All the information present in this report is provided to the bureau by the member institutions only. Not every person can view his/her report. It is only the members who have submitted their entire data to CIBIL who can access acredit report on request.

Credit report contains information about all the loans and credit cards that a customer has and some other details like:

• Personal identification details like name, address, pan no, passport and driving license.
• The repayment status of the account
• Details of all the closed accounts
• No of enquiries made by member banks
• Amount overdue

Depending upon the payment track record of all the current as well as closed accounts that a customer has CIBIL gives rating to every individual in forms of score. It ranges between 100-900 and is a 3 digit code which shows the position of theborrower in terms of making the payments, may it be for a card or for a loan and any other facility obtained. CIBIL ratings are given on the basis of score of an individual.

CIBIL Credit Score Range

It further is divided into 3 broad categories; excellent, good, poor and fair. We can also say that CIBIL scoring id divided into three categories:

» High Score

» Low Score

» No or Zero Score

• When a customer’s account is clean as he has been regular in making all his payments, there is no amount overdue in any of the loan and there has been no bounce or settlement in the closed accounts too, his CIBIL score would be high.
• If the borrower has been a non performer with amount outstanding any of his account and also has settlement with member banks on his accounts, it means that he is not a good customer and his CIBIL score is going to be low.
• If you have taken no loan till and there are no matches in your report for a credit facility, your score will be Zero.

Let us understand what does an excellent, good, poor and fair CIBIL ratings signify:

• If the score given to you by credit bureau is in between 751-900, it is considered to be very high and your rating is excellent.
• Anything between 700-750 is high and the rating is good.
• If it is less than 700 and 500 it is considered to be average in case of 700 and very low for 500 and below. Similarly the CIBIL ratings go on like fair and poor if the score is less than 500.

Learn How CIBIL Determines Your Credit Rating

Credit Information Bureau of India Limited was formed in the year 2000. It has 169 members till date and all of them are leading banks, both nationalized and private ones, Financial institutions, housing finance organizations, Non banking financial institutions.

The main objective of CIBIL is to gather and preserve the information on all the credit facilities availed by a borrower and the repayment status. Credit bureau keeps this information for all its member institutions to help them take lending decisions impartially.

CIBIL credit score system basically is to impart a score to the customer on the basis of the repayment track record of the loans and cards payments that he is suppose to make to the member banks. The score ranges from 100 to 999. The good score or a high score indicates a good credit report and vice versa.

Scoring system is divided into three forms:

* Zero or no Score
* High
* Low

Let us understand how a score is actually determined for a CIBIL report.

I. Zero Score:

* If there are no matches found in last 12 months for availing a credit facility, then the there would be no or zero score.

II. Low score:

* If the average time of all the accounts matched in the report is practically low, then it means that all these facilities are recently availed and you will have a low score.
* If the current payments are due and bounced, it indicates that the borrower is a non performer and the account is rated as a bad account.
* If there are too may enquiries by the member institution in your CIBIL for a credit facility, it shows that customer is desperately looking for the loan and financial condition may not be that strong.
* If amount of recent exposure extended to the borrower is large, the score would be low.
* And if, there are too many loans and cards reflecting in the CIBIL, it shows that he customer is over burdened and is not capable of making the payments anymore.

III. High Score:

* If age of all the accounts in your report is 12 months or more.
* No bounces till date in any of the accounts and no amount overdue.
* Decent recent exposure to the borrower
* Less number of enquiries by the member banks for a credit facility.

Credit rating is something which is determined by the CIBIL score of an individual. Your rating would be good if you have a decent score say 500; it is going to be excellent on 800 and bad on 0.

A good credit rating can fetch your many benefits like fast approval, low rate of interest, extended term and bigger loan amount. On the other hand a person whose rating is not that good may face a rejection or lesser amount approval, a very high interest rate and short tenure.

Get Rid From CIBIL Credit Card Write Off

Cibil credit card amounts write off is a condition, which happens after continuous 180 days of non-payment of your credit card dues. Banks write offs your credit card account if you do not make the payment, which is due on your card for 6 months.

However, you will still keep on receiving calls from the collection agency but the account is written is a write off account. It indicates the bad history of a borrower and it stays in your credit report for 7 years according to the rules.

Here is how you can remove a credit card write off from your cibil report:

* Well, a write off stays in your credit report for 7 years; but the banks have the power to upgrade any debt three times every seven years and this means that it can actually stay in yourcredit report for complete 21 years. But there is a way out to this and one can improve his/her cibil report by getting rid of this.
* The moment you figure that you have a write off account in your credit report, you must immediately contact your lender. Your lender would surely help you if you are showing interest in making the payment and would not treat you badly or as a bad customer. Get the total amount due on you r card calculated with the help of your lender.
* You may require presenting the last monthly bill statements received and some other details of your credit card. Follow the instructions and give proper details needed. Your bank will now give the exact figure of amount that you owe to the bank.
* Pay this amount and get a no due certificate or payment receipt from your lender. The process is not over yet. You will now have to call up your bank again and request them to update about the full and finalpayment to the credit bureau. You bank will now update this to cibil and within a span of 40 days, the write off will get cleared from your cibil report and the account would be shown as a normal closed account.
* You can contact Cibil directly also, if your bank does not co operate in updating the status to cibil and tell them about your settlement by showing thepayment receipt. After some clarifications and enquiries from the lender, the credit bureau will update the same in your report and your report will be clean.

How CIBIL Score Can Affect Your Car Loan

Cibil and car loan rates, both are interlinked. Cibil is credit information bureau of India limited, and the main purpose of this agency is to preserve and present the entire history of an individual repayment history for all the banks and financial institutions who are its members.

This information is provided to the cibil by these banks only and all this information is provided to them on personal request whenever any person applies for ant credit facility, to check the payment track record of that person.

On the basis of the payment history, every individual is issued a score and this score is known as cibil score. This score reflects the overall status and commitment towards the debts of an individual and plays a very crucial role is getting you a car loan.

Your auto loan rate depends a lot on your credit or cibil score, but it is not also the only factor on which your interest rate would depend. The score ranges from 100-900 and on basis of your repayment status and regularity, credit bureau issues a score to you.

* Your car loan rate will be higher if your cibil score is low and would be lower if your cibil score is high. For this we will have to understand the complete scoring system. Your score is considered to be good or high, if it is 700 or above and it is considered to be lower or bad, if it is less than 500. Anything between 501-699 is said to be an average credit score. Your lender while assigning an interest rate on your car loan does take into consideration, your score.
* Cibil and car loan are interlinked in this way. Your lender would charge low rate on your car loan, if your cibil score is high (700 or above). On the other hand, if your score is about average (501-699), then the rate charged would be slightly high but there won’t be a much difference. Now, if your score is bad or poor; which is less than 500, then your lender would charge a very high interest rate on your car loan.

The reason behind this is, people with high or average scores are considered to be high profile people and the risk factor involved is less as in case of low score profiles. High rate is charged to recover some good amount of money in fewer Emi’s only, so that if in case the borrower stop making the payments afterwards, the bank would not be in complete loss.

Remove Your Name From Cibil Defaulter’s List

Credit information bureau of India limited or Cibil is an agency that maintains the entire record of all the loans and advances taken by an individual from all the banks and other financial institutions who are members with Cibil.

This information is provided to cibil by the member banks and institutions. This record is maintained to help all the member banks so that they can get the previous and updated record on the repayment status of a particular person. This information helps the lenders take the approval decision quicklyand with fewer risks.

It has been seen that many a times your name still exists in cibil after default settlement.

There can be two reasons, which may be responsible for this:

* Data processing error
* Banks not updating your settlement status to credit bureau.

What basically happens is, sometimes banks do not update to cibil that your dues on a particular loan or credit card has been settledand so your name should be erased or deleted from cibil defaulters list.

Mentioned below are the ways through which you can remove your name from cibil defaulters list after default settlement:

* If you see that your name is still existing as a defaulter after you have made the full and final payment towards your account to your lender, you must contact your lender immediately and request it to update the status of your dues that it has been cleared form your end to cibil so that the bureau should remove your name from defaulters list.
* For this, you will have to mail a copy of your settlement receipt or no due certificate to your bank, which has been issued, to you at the time when you made the payment. Your lender will then contact credit information bureauand will also give the details of your account. Now cibil will remove your name from its defaulter list.
* You can also contact cibil directly on the helpdesk number- 1800-224-245 or telephone number- +91 -22 6638 4600 / 2281 7788 and place a request for removal of your name from cibil after default settlement. You would be required to give some details about the account on which you have made the paymentand after a few enquiries with your bank, your name would be removed and your credit report will become clear.

Things That Banks Report To CIBIL And It’s Impact On You And Your CIBIL Score

Credit Information Bureau of India Limited or CIBIL maintains the credit history of borrowers and makes it accessible for the banks to help them see the credit records of the customer.

This information is made available only to those financial institutions who are a member if CIBIL. The maintained information by credit bureau includes the entire status of the payment record of all the loans and credit cards that acustomer has. It also provides the information for the closed loans and cards if any and keeps the record for 7 years.

Banks and other financial institutions who are members with CIBIL provides information about every borrower and the bureau keeps it consolidated in a separate database. When ever there is any updation in the record of acustomer and whenever any new customer applies for a loan or card the bank sends the information to the credit bureau.

CIBIL report provides the information of an individual customer as well as of a commercial organisation.

The credit report of an individual will have the following details:

* General information like Name, Mailing Address
* Pan Card Number, Passport Number and Voters Id Number.
* Registration Number for firms
* Details of all the loans and advances availed by the borrower from any bank
* Payment status of all the instalments
* Default status like bounce or non payment history
* Amount overdue on particular card or loan
* Payment history of all closed loans and credit cards

CIBIL report is specially maintained to help the banks so that they can easily get to know the track record of any individual who applies for the loan. No bank would be interested in lending money to a defaulter and this is where a CIBIL report becomes useful.

Whenever an individual or a firm applies for a loan, the concerned lender immediately gets his CIBIL issued and checks his credit history. Whether the status of your loan is clean or it is full of bounces or you have had a settlement, a CIBIL report has it all.

The information provided by the banks of a borrower’s track is responsible for CIBIL score. CIBIL score is basically a rating given to every customer depending upon the previous and current repayment record. A good track record gets you a good score whereas a bad history in payments will fetch you a bad CIBIL score.

The more your score is, more are your chances of fast approval with a lower rate. Therefore, the information provided by the banks to credit bureau effects your CIBIL score a lot.

Get The Cibil Control Number And Access Your Cibil Report

Cibil control number is a nine-digit number issued by Cibil to every individual’s credit report. This number is very important and it is through this control number only, that you can get the information of your account from the credit bureau and have a constant check on your records that are maintained by cibil.

It keeps the track record of millions of borrowers and there are many people with same first and last name. It becomes very difficult to trace a report with the help of the name of an individual.

This is why a Cibil control number is issued for every report that is generated and even the member banks get the information from cibil through this number only. Had this system of assigning acontrol number not been there, it would have been very difficult and confusing for Cibil to maintain and provide the data to the banks. This control number is confidential and you cannot have an access to your cibil report as an individual. It is only your lending bank, which can give you the details.

Here is how you can get your cibil control number to get an access to your cibil report:

* You can ask your bank from which your loan is running to give you your control number. It might not give you this number saying it is confidential, in this case it is better that you ask them for a copy of your cibil report and the bank would mail you the scanned copy of your report. You can now note down yourcontrol number, which is mentioned on the top of your credit report.
* Second is you can approach CIBIL directly and ask for your control number. It is advised that you call cibil on helpdesk number: 1800 – 224 – 245 or visit www.cibil.com and place a request in writing for your credit report so that you can get your control number. Every individual has a right to obtain his/her control number and credit report, Credit Information Companies Regulation Act, 2005 or CICRA has given this right to us.

So, this is how one can get his/her control number from cibil.