CIBIL Score Calculation: How is Your CIBIL Score Calculated?

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Your Guide to CIBIL Score Calculation

Your CIBIL Score is a three-digit-long numeric figure that stays within the range of 300-900 that is an indicator of your loan or credit repayment ability. The higher your CIBIL score is, the better are your chances of getting a loan or a credit card. Your CIBIL score is in fact the first thing your lender will look into when they receive your loan or credit card application as it tells them whether or not you can pay off a loan. TransUnion CIBIL, the credit bureau that assigns you a CIBIL score, takes information regarding your credit repayment behaviour and borrowing pattern into account and then they assign you a CIBIL score based on that. This article will tell you exactly how TransUnion CIBIL calculates your CIBIL score.

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:

Factors	Weightage
Payment history (The number of payments that have already been made and whether or not they were made on a timely basis)	30%
Credit exposure (The money that you owe)	25%
Credit type and duration (The number of secured/unsecured loans that you have and the age of your loan/credit card account)	25%
Other factors (Such as the number of your active loan/credit card accounts and the number of inquiries the credit bureaus have made about you)	20%

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.

Factors on Which Your CIBIL Score Calculation Depends

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 credit 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 credit 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.

What is the Ideal CIBIL Score You Should Have

If you want to apply for any kind of loan, you should ensure that your CIBIL score is above a certain threshold. That particular threshold point is what the lenders consider to be ideal for a particular type of loan. The ideal CIBIL score that you should have for any form of loan are as follows:

Loan Type	Ideal CIBIL Score
Personal loan	700 or above
Automotive Loan	700 or above
Business Loan	700 or above
Home Loan	650 or above
Loan against Property	650 or above
Gold Loan	Not Required

Different CIBIL Score Ranges and Their Meanings

The range that your CIBIL score is in determines your chances of loan/credit card approval. Hence, it is safe to say that different CIBIL score ranges will mean different things for you. The different meaning your CIBIL score will have, depending on the range that they are in, are as follows:

CIBIL Score Range	Meaning
750 - 900	An extraordinary credit history. You will get a credit card or loan easily. You are financially disciplined and repay your dues on time without fail.
700 - 750	A great, but not exemplary, track record of repaying debts timely. However, if your credit score is in this range, lenders may conduct some more checks based on their internal credit policies.
550 - 700	You are irregular with your credit repayments. Lenders may think that giving you a loan is a risky affair. You may get a loan or credit card, but you will get the same at a higher rate of interest or unfavourable repayment terms.
300 - 550	You have defaulted and been undisciplined in the area of your credit repayments. With a credit score in this range, you will most certainly find it difficult to get a loan or a credit card.

Conclusion

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.

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Credit Agencies

A credit bureau calculates an individual’s CIBIL score after taking several factors into account. These factors are the likes of an individual’s loan repayment behaviour, credit card management and credit utilisation ratio, among others. After the relevant agencies have done their due diligence, they assign a three-digit numerical figure to the borrower. This figure is a part of the borrowers’ credit information report (CIR) that bureaus make after collating all of the borrower’s credit behaviour-related data and adding it to a single report.

Some of the things that can affect your CIBIL score negatively is non-timely repayment of your debt, a high credit utilisation ratio and a high number of inquiries made by lending institutions about you. So, in order to prevent your CIBIL score from falling, you must repay your debts timely, use less than 30% of the credit available to you and avoid sending out too many credit card/loan applications over a short span of time.

The primary reason why your CIBIL score can be different from scores issued by other credit bureaus is that although every credit bureau calculates individual credit scores in a similar way, every one of them adds a different weightage to different aspects of your credit history. Additionally, another reason why your CIBIL score may differ from scores produced by other credit bureaus is that others may not have received updated information from the lender yet.

Although considered to be synonymous, Credit Scores and CIBIL scores are not exactly one and the same thing. CIBIL scores are credit scores, but this particular figure is only published by Credit Information Bureau of India Limited (CIBIL). Credit score, on the other hand, is a general term used for similar looking three-digit-long numerical figures that are published by other Indian credit bureaus. Other bureaus that assign and publish credit scores to Indian borrowers are Equifax, Experian and CRIF Highmark.

You can check your CIBIL score online for free once every year by simply logging on to the CIBIL website and making a User ID. During the registration process, you will be asked to take a subscription plan, but since you want to check your CIBIL report just once, you can skip that part and proceed. After you have done so, you can check your free annual CIBIL-issued credit information report that will have your CIBIL score too.

The ideal CIBIL score for securing any kind of loan is 750 or above. Some lenders can also grant you loans if your CIBIL score is in the range of 650-750, but they will be done so at a high interest rate.

Loan rejections do not affect CIBIL score at all as a loan can be rejected for reasons other than your loan repayment capability and overall risk profile.