THE KEY TO CREDITWORTHINESS
Your credit information report is a vulnerable stack that needs attention
The karma theory says we all suffer for our wrongdoings. But what if you are suffering for mistakes that aren’t your own? This is especially true when it comes to credit information report or ‘CIBIL report’, as it is popularly known.
Credit bureaus store information supplied by multiple banks and financial institutions on borrowers, loans and credit cards to ensure repayment history is efficiently traced before loans or cards are doled out to a person. But on many occasions, borrowers have complained of loans being rejected despite their clean slate. This may be due to inaccurate/ damaging information getting into your credit information reports (CIRs), which not just leads to a lower credit score but also forces you to pay a steeper interest rate than your eligibility requires.
Errors, namely misspellings of names, addition of accounts that don’t belong to you, missing existing loan accounts, outdated information on overdue amounts, additional zeroes creeping in during manual uploading of details... all these can happen over a period of time. Multiple fields and information can be notified in a single dispute. However, certain elements such as control number, name, account number (unless there is an ownership dispute), date reported, inquiry date etc. are such that you cannot raise a dispute.
One can raise a dispute through an online form (credit bureau’s website), writing in to the repository or approaching the bank or lender. “If a consumer notices a discrepancy, they can approach the lender or raise a dispute with CIBIL online. Reaching out to the lender may expedite the resolution,” says Hrushikesh Mehta, head, Direct to Consumers Interactive, TransUnion CIBIL. The bureau flags the relevant section as ‘Under Dispute’ and the information entered in the credit report is sent for cross-verification. The report gets corrected only if the credit institution confirms the inaccuracy.
However, if the lender re-confirms that information mentioned in your CIR is correct, then the bureaus cannot make any changes. In this case, you would need to follow it up directly with the lender by providing documentary proof to your claim and escalate the issue with the banking ombudsman.
There are also several credit repair agencies such as credexpert.in, creditmantri. com etc. which can assist you in getting your CIR corrected, albeit for a fee. But since bureaus offer a free service, why not take it?