How is Your CIBIL Score Calculated?

TransUnion CIBIL essentially follows what is known as the FICO scoring model while calculating your CIBIL score. This essentially means that the eponymous credit bureau takes a look at certain things regarding your credit behaviour into account and then adds a weightage to each one of them. The information that the credit bureau bases your CIBIL score on is sourced from banking and financial institutions.

 

The weightage percentage that TransUnion CIBIL assigns to each and every aspect of your credit behaviour is as follows:

Once TransUnion CIBIL has taken all of the aforementioned factors into account, they will calculate your CIBIL score on the basis of how you have performed in all of the areas and the weightage assigned.

The factors on which your CIBIL score calculation depends are:

• Repayment history:

Your repayment history is unarguably the most important factor that is taken into account while calculating your CIBIL score. While doing the same, CIBIL will look at little nuances of your repayment history. These nuances are the likes of the number of timely payments you have made and if you paid your dues late at any given point in time. If you have made your credit card/loan repayments on a timely basis, you will score pretty well in this area.

• Your credit utilisation ratio:

The percentage of your available credit which has been used by you is known as your credit utilisation ratio. Experts are of the opinion that at any given point in time, your credit utilisation ratio must be 40% or below that to have a healthy credit score. If your credit utilisation ratio is above the 40% mark, it will give your future potential lender an indication that you are a credit hungry person. If the lender forms that opinion of you, your lender may reject your loan application, which will eventually drag down your CIBIL score. Hence, it is always a good idea to live within your means and use less than 40% of your available credit at any given point.

• Your credit mix:

The kind of credit accounts that you have availed is known as your credit mix. The credit accounts that are a part of your credit mix can be widely classified as two kinds of credit account, namely secured and unsecured credit accounts. Experts are of the opinion that if you want to maintain a healthy CIBIL score, you should have a healthy mix of secured and unsecured credit accounts. If your credit mix is predominantly made up of unsecured or non collateral-backed credit, it will not do your CIBIL score any favours. In fact, the dominance of unsecured credit (such as personal loans, credit cards or collateral-free business loans) may actually bring your credit score down.

• Number of active credit lines:

The number of credit card and loan accounts that are active under your name is an indicator of your credit dependency. If your CIBIL report reflects more than 7 active credit lines, it will make the lender wary about giving you a loan. A lender could even reject your loan/credit card application because a high number of active credit lines will give the lender an impression that you are heavily dependent on credit. Not to mention that a high number of credit accounts will also affect your CIBIL score negatively. Hence, if you have a high number of credit accounts, you should consider taking a personal loan of a higher amount and consolidate your debt to reduce your number of active credit lines. It will eventually improve your CIBIL score.

• Number of inquiries made by credit agencies:

Everytime you apply for a credit card or a loan, the concerned lender makes an inquiry for your CIBIL score. A lender does the same to assess your creditworthiness. These inquiries are known as hard inquiries. Whenever a lender makes a hard inquiry about your credit score, CIBIL records the same and then adds it to your CIBIL report. The number of credit card or loan applications you will submit are directly proportional to the number of inquiries lenders will make about you. If you apply for too many credit cards or loans in a short span of time, your CIBIL score will eventually go down. Not to mention that every credit card or loan application rejection will bring your CIBIL score down even further. But, if you space them out, you will manage to maintain a healthy CIBIL score. Hence, it is always advisable that you do not submit too many credit card or loan applications in a short span of time.

It is important to know about everything related to your CIBIL score as it plays a much more important role in your loan or credit card approval than you think when you apply for one. Bajaj Markets has a wealth of information about how credit bureaus like CIBIL assess your creditworthiness and how you can improve the same to increase your credit approval chances.