CIBIL is a premier agency, which collects and disseminates credit scores and reports pertaining to individuals and companies. A credit report from CIBIL constitutes a CIBIL score that ranges from 300 to 900 with 900 being the highest.
Thanks to CIBIL, the financial market is now more regulated than before! Today, maintaining a good credit history is of extreme importance. Your credit information report is one of the most important factors that banks and financial institutions consider in the eligibility criteria of a loan application process. It's needless to say; a higher score ensures you have better chances of getting your loan application approved.
But while we're discussing a good credit score and better financial standing, let's not forget that mistakes do happen. And when we're talking about a huge database (such as CIBIL), a mistake might seem a common occurrence. Just one simple mistake in a CIBIL report may go unnoticed, leading to a rejection of your loan application among other things.
Based on anecdotal evidence, experts suggest that every 1 out of 4 CIBIL reports is likely to be erroneous and can severely hamper the credit score of the applicant. It might be possible that even after being an upstanding citizen, an error in your CIBIL report might feature you as a loan defaulter. So, it’s extremely important that we get these mistakes corrected before they affect our financial planning.
So here’s a complete process and a step-by-step guide on how to identify mistakes in your CIBIL report to get them corrected.
Check Your CIBIL Report for any Potential Errors:
Having a keen eye on your CIBIL report is the very first step that ensures your CIBIL score is error-free. You can download your CIBIL report online (from the official website) or request your bank for a copy to regularly check your report. Conduct this exercise once/twice every year to keep your CIBIL score accurate.
Reporting Errors:
Broadly, we can classify errors in a CIBIL report under two different categories:
- Errors at the Data Submission Stage: Your Basic Personal Information
Essentially, this is a mistake generated from your lender's end. These trivial errors occur due to incorrect submission of your basic and personal information. Such typographical mistakes might lead to errors in your personal details like name, address, contact information, gender, your identity documents including PAN Card, passport, Aadhaar Card, etc. amongst other submission details.
Additionally, you might find inaccuracies in your bank account number, latest balance, credit behavior, the latest status of the settlement, asset classification, or even reporting delays from your lender’s end. Other mistakes might be a result of ‘numbering errors’ such as payment details where your last payment of ₹100,000 is reported as ₹10,000 (with a missing zero).
- Errors at Aggregation Stage: The Ownership of Information
Errors in a CIBIL report can also be ownership-related, meaning certain mistakes that aren’t incurred due to your errors either directly or indirectly. Usually, banks are required to update credit reports in a day and with millions of data fields being processed every day, it is definitely a herculean task to perform. So it's common for data to get mixed up. For instance, someone that shares a similar name as yours could have defaulted on his loan, something which you might never even think about doing and the default appears in your CIBIL report! Such disputes are stressful and should be immediately reported for corrections.
Now, when we've gone through the different mistakes in a CIBIL report, let's understand how to fix such errors and repair your credit history to reach a good financial standing:
Guide to Report CIBIL Errors:
Step 1: Visit the CIBIL official website here Hover over the Dispute Resolution tab at the top of the screen.
Step 2: Find the correct dispute resolution category from the following:
- Consumer Dispute Resolution
- Company Dispute Resolution
Step 3: Fill up the dispute form accurately while reporting all the errors/mistakes that you have identified in your CIBIL report.
Step 4: Once you've filed your case, the credit bureau will take up your dispute with the relevant lender based on the 'dispute category'. The decision is based on whether the lender accepts your dispute or rejects it. In cases where CIBIL requires to conduct further investigations, the lender will be asked to present authentic details to the bureau.
Note: This process takes at least 30 working days for the resolution of a dispute.
Step 5: Once your disputes are accepted by the lender, they get rectified as per the guidelines of CIBIL and you get a completely error-free report. However, in other cases where your dispute is rejected, CIBIL will let you know through your preferred mode of communication.
With a tightening regulatory environment, having an upstanding CIBIL score/report is of utmost importance. If you find any errors, you should report them immediately to avoid any potential mishaps in your financial planning. So download your CIBIL report today and ensure its accuracy.
