Before conversing about fixing damages to the credit score. Let us talk about a good credit score.
We often ignore credit score while applying for loans, and many of us unaware of the low score, until the lender rejects our application and informs us.
We should not turn a deaf ear towards our credit score; instead we should monitor it regularly.
What is the Credit score and why is it so important?
So essentially a credit score represents a person’s creditworthiness when he/she asks for a loan.
A person’s credit score is determined by the person’s repayment behavior and credit history, and the creditworthiness is constructed around that. The credit agencies maintain a database of credit standings of individuals and commercial entities. The score ranges between 300- 900. Score of 750 and above is considered to be a good score.
There are four agencies that are permitted to maintain this database. They are CIBIL, Equifax, Experien, and CRIF highmark.
Why is the score so important?
With a huge array of financial institutions you might feel that money is easily accessible, but this is not the case. The risks associated with lending have always been considered high and it is necessary for the institution to ensure that it’s lending to right person. Hence, the financial instruments rely on criteria that decide whether you deserve the loan or not. Here is where Credit score shines brightly. It is usually the decision making point for lenders to give or to not give the loan to the borrower.
Hence it is important for you to maintain a good credit score, and work towards improving if it is low.
What makes a good credit score.?
The credit score, amongst many things, looks at these critical parameters:-
- 1. Repayment history
- 2. Loan enquiries and status
- 3. Loan to income ratio
- 4. Length of the credit history
There are no short cuts to improving credit scores. The best way is to administer and manage it over time. And gradually things will fall in the right place.
Let’s focus on some things that we can do to better our low credit scores
- 1. Stop asking for a new credit – If you are aware that your credit score is poor, you should not apply for a loan at multiple banks. The more inquiries the lender puts into your credit score, the lower it goes. You need to be patient till the time you obtain the suitable score.
- 2. Lessen the debt quotient in your kitty – You should meticulously chart out the credit accounts that you have out of your credit report. You need to stop using credit cards for this situation. Make a budgetary plan, and direct your expenses towards the higher rate interest credit cards first.
- 3. Keep your repayment balanced: Well it sounds quirky, however repayment does affect your CIBIL score badly. So in this scenario if you drastically pay off all your repayments at once, then this portrays instability in your financial records. Repayments as a process should take place gradually thus reflecting monetary stability and rendering positivity to your CIBIL score.
- 4. Set up reminders for Payment: We are so caught up in our routines, that we hardly have a breathing space. But we need to be alert, and sensible when it comes to financial planning and decisioning. Some financial institutions offer payment reminders through their online banking portals that can send you an email or text message telling you about the due date.
Also there are automatic payments through your credit cards, wherein if you enroll, then payments are automatically deducted from your account and gets received by the lenders.
- 5. Be vigilant of any sort of mismatches in your credit reports: It is advisable to leave no stone unturned.
Sometimes bank authorities can across erroneous entries to CIBIL. So in such case scenarios, you need to approach banks to rectify the mistakes. Also you need to make sure that all the data on positive and timely payments is recorded and submitted by your lender to CIBIL
- 6. Use your credit judiciously: Whenever you make use of your credit, then you should analyze the credit utilization ratio. This ratio is of amount of credit you have used to the amount if credit available as balance.
If you have numerous credit cards, and you use only one of them, then your credit score may get negatively impacted. Hence you need to be smarter and spread your spends over numerous credit cards and not just one.
- 7. You need to create credit history if you do not have one: For first-timers, there is an absence of credit history. Lenders might hesitate to give them a loan, owing to their zero credit score. So what you can do is open up a fixed deposit and take a credit card against it. And once you have one in your hand, then you can work towards it and improve the credit score.
We recommend you to check the credit score before applying for any loan to ensure that there are no issues in the credit history. Even if there are any, make sure you get them rectified by the agencies before applying for the loan.
Our aim for writing this out was to make you understand the importance of a good credit history, and we hope that you take smarter steps towards financial goals.
Image Source:Credit.com
