Free Credit Scores In India

Before a bank/other financial institute extends a loan to a potential borrower, it needs to take a decision on whether the person would be able to repay the interest and principal or default and how much  risk is involved in lending money to this person. Banks and other financial institutions rely on many factors to take this decision on credit-worthiness – including the person’s income and household income , the person’s other loans and EMIs, the person’s previous repayment history and defaults if any, etc.

In the past, the banks had to collect all this information from a potential borrower before analyzing it. But now, they make use of   credit reports and credit scores. A few years ago, the only credit reports and credit scores available were from CIBIL. At the time, I wrote about interpreting the CIBIL CIR and improving the Credit Score and How a Good Credit Score improves one’s chances of securing a loan on better terms. Link. Link.Link.

In the intervening years, more credit bureaus, other than CIBIL, have started operating in India.Every credit bureau in India has its own version of credit reports. Each of these reports has similar information. However, the format and presentation of the credit reports is different for each of these bureaus. This means that the credit scores vary from bureau to bureau. However,all credit report scores in India vary from 300-900. The higher the score of an individual, the higher his credit worthiness. The main difference is in the pricing of these reports:CIBIL (Rs. 500), Equifax (Rs. 400), Experian (Rs. 399) and Highmark (Rs. 299).

In the US, every individual can get one free credit report, from every credit bureau, once every year. This is not the case in India. A recent committee appointed by the Reserve Bank of India did come close to making a similar recommendation but this did not finally materialise.But this does not mean that ponying up cash for a credit report is absolutely necessary.It is now possible to get your credit and score for free by visiting freescoreindia.com. The report and score provided is from Equifax. The company offsets the cost of the reports by targeted advertising to its customers. The process is really simple. All you need to do is login, fill in your unique identifiers and wait to view your report. You also get access to customised offers which can help you to save money over a period of time.