Track Your Credit Score

Your credit score is the deciding factor for your lender while deciding whether to grant you a loan or not. It indicates your creditworthiness and ability to repay the credit granted to you. It is due to this reason why you must always check your credit score periodically. Read on to know the ways in which you can do that if you are wondering ‘How can I track my credit score?’.

How to Track Your Credit Score

One way to do it is through the free credit health check report that you can avail through Bajaj Markets. It will contain your credit score and other information regarding your credit behaviour. Other two ways to do it are as follows:

• Websites of the credit bureaus: Four major credit bureaus operate in India, namely CIBIL, Equifax, Experian and CRIF Highmark. You can avail one free credit report from their official websites every year. If you want to check your credit score more frequently than that, you can purchase a monthly or an annual subscription and do it.

• Third party apps: Some apps such as CRED and other companies which can help you keep a track of your payments/financial activity information have begun displaying credit scores for its users. You can download those apps, log in with your credentials and check your credit score for yourself.

• Check with your bank or lender: One easy way to keep a track of your credit score is by checking in with your bank or lender directly. Banks have recently begun providing credit scores to their customers. This information is accessible to banks at all times as they offer their client, pre-approved loans and credit cards on the basis of that.

Important Things to Note When Monitoring Credit Score

There are certain things that you must keep an eye on while analysing your credit score and your overall credit information report. They are as follows:

• Your total outstanding loan amount: This is one detail that you must monitor frequently. It will help you determine the total amount you owe across all credit accounts. Additionally, it will also be able to tell you whether or not you will be able to pick up fresh loans/get new credit cards in the future.

• Your credit utilisation ratio: Credit utilisation ratio is defined as the percentage of your available credit that has already been used up. If you want to maintain a healthy credit utilisation ratio, you must ensure that this percentage stays around or under 30%. If you go beyond that percentage, it can affect your credit score negatively, making it difficult for you to avail new credit cards/loans in the future.

• Potential frauds or cases of identity theft: Chances are that you may miss any unauthorised credit card transactions while checking your credit card statement. Or, it is entirely possible that someone may have taken a loan in your name without your knowledge. All of this information will be available in your credit report. If you spot such transactions or loan accounts, you must report them quickly.

• Inaccuracy/Misprints: It is also entirely possible that inaccurate information must have been shared with the credit bureaus or someone must have entered them wrong into the system. This could result in inaccuracies in your credit report, which could bring down your credit score for no fault of your own. This is one key thing you must keep an eye on while scanning your credit report. If you do spot any such discrepancy, you must report it to the credit bureaus immediately.