How to Read a Cibil Report
A credit report is a detailed description of how your behavior has been with previously borrowed credit (loans etc). If you make any defaults on EMI payments or paying your credit card bills, they are added as a negative on your credit report. The most important thing that is present on your credit report is your Credit Score. It is a three digit number that is an indicator of your credit performance. This score determines whether or not you are creditworthy. This section of the CIBIL report can say NA or NH if you do not have a credit history. This section also includes an indication of how likely your application is to get approved. Apart from the credit score, your CIBIL report consists of the following sections-
Personal Information
As the name suggests, this section consists of private information about the person whose credit report it is. Details included in this section are as follows-
- Name
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Identifying number (e.g. PAN, Voter ID or Passport Number, etc.)
It is very essential to ensure that the details included in this section are absolutely correct and in accordance with what you fill out in your application form as the bank will check this document before they take a decision on your application’s approval.
Contact Information
This section can be seen as an extension of the previous one. It consists of the information that can be used to reach you. Things like your phone numbers and addresses are mentioned in this section. You can add up to 4 addresses in this section. A few lenders operate only in specific areas. Make sure that your address details are correct so that your loan application does not get rejected.
Employment Information
Income is another important thing that is considered when a financial institution looks at your loan application. The details of where you work, your monthly or annual income etc are mentioned in this section. You must ensure that this information is updated at all times.
Account Information
This is undoubtedly on eof the most important sections of the entire credit report. It comprises the details of all your credit accounts including-
- Name of the lender(s)
- The type of credit
- Account number(s)
- Whether singly or jointly held
- Date of account opening
- Date of the last payment
- Loan amount
- The current balance
- Monthly repayment record
One must check whether the following details are correct:
-
Your account details:
Details like the name of the lender, the account number, the type of account (whether it is a credit card or a personal loan, etc.), the type of ownership of the account (single or joint or guarantor), date of account opening, closing and the last reporting date to CIBIL.
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The status of the account:
Whether the account has been written off, settled or suit filed. Since these cases are not good from the lender’s point of view, ensure that you do not let your account get into these statuses. Also, ensure that the status is not mistakenly written wrong in the credit report. A ‘Settled’ account means that you have made a partial payment with the consent of the lender since you were unable to pay off the entire loan amount. If you do not make payments for a loan/credit card bill for 180 days, the loan is “written off” and reported to the credit bureau.
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Your DPD:
The Days Past Due indicates how the number of days that have passed since you defaulted against a repayment. many days a payment on that account is late by that month. Anything other than “000” or “STD” is negative for your report. Other things that can be found in this place are-
Standard (STD) |
Payments being made on time |
Special Mention Account (SMA) |
Special account created for reporting Standard Accounts moving toward Sub-Standard
|
Sub-Standard (SUB) |
Payments have been made but delayed by 90 days or more
|
Doubtful (DBT) |
The account has been substandard for 12 months
|
Loss (LSS) |
An account where loss has been detected
|
“XXX” |
Number of days the payment is late by
|
Inquiry Information
When you check your free CIBIL report, it is called a soft inquiry and has no effect on your credit score whatsoever. Whenever you apply for credit at a financial institution, they run a check on your credit report. It is known as a hard inquiry. This section consists of the hard inquiries on your CIBIL report. If you apply to a lot of places simultaneously, not only does your credit score drop, lenders see it as a bad sign that you rely on credit too much.
