How to get your Free Credit Report?
Did you know that you get a Credit Report free every year from 1st Jan 2017?. If not, please read on.
A credit report is an important document that is regularly updated with things like loans you took, EMIs you paid on time or not, your credit card overdue statement. Till now, this report was not Free in India unlike other developed countries.
Credit Reports and Scores are also important checklist items that are considered by every Bank and NBFC before approving your loan application – be it a Personal Loan, Home Loan or a Business Loan that you are applying for your company as a Director or Propreitor of the company.
Credit Information Companies like CIBIL TransUnion, Experian and Equifax are the ones who keep a track of this data for every borrower and are now bound by this RBI mandate to provide this for Free to every Indian!
On Sep 1 2016, via a circular RBI had directed all the Credit Information Companies (CICs) in India to provide one Free Full Credit Report (FFCR) to anyone who requests it after due authorisation checks, every year.
Here is a cheat sheet about how you could get one from the different CICs :-
- CIBIIL Report
- This is available via on offline process as of now.
- You can download this form and send it via post to CIBIL office in Mumbai (I Know!!). I hope CIBIL will soon make this available online as well.
- You would be required to send your Address Proof, ID proof and other details like Address, PAN, Mobile etc.
- Free CIBIL Report Form
- The document also contains and FAQs along with the Address
- Note, CIBIL may take upto 30 days to send you this Free Credit Report
- Experian Credit Report
- Experian has a 3 step Online process
- First please fill the Free Experian Credit Report web form to get your Free Experian Credit application started
- Once you fill this, you should receive a Voucher Code in ~ 2 days and a link to your Email ID that would contain further instructions and forms to be filled online
- I am not sure if Experian has a offline/postal process as well. Here is the link for Experian offline form
- Equifax Credit Report
- In contrast, this one seems to be available on mobile only
- Google PlayStore – Android
- Apple Store – iOS
- I am not sure if the Equifax report is available via other channels
- In contrast, this one seems to be available on mobile only
Your Credit Report and score is something that you should be aware of even when you are not immediately looking for a loan so that you are aware of your credit worthiness. At times, there may be errors in these reports that you could proactively get addressed by raising a request with the concerned CIC. This could be of immense help in terms of time taken to get your loan application approved whenever you need the same.
Vikram Verma
CTO, FundsTiger
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