Comments
If you have applied for a loan or a credit card, the Credit Information Report (CIR) which lending institutions get from Credit Information Companies (CIC) plays a crucial role in the approval process. It is therefore important to understand the information contained in the report and also to monitor it regularly to ensure that it is accurate and updated.
Check your report
By obtaining your CIR, you will see all the information that the company holds about you. You will thus be able to check if the information is accurate, updated and complete. Accuracy of data is important for lending institutions since it will provide them the correct picture of your credit history and help them make the right decision. It is therefore in everyone’s interest to rectify mistakes, if any, in your credit information report.
Once you obtain your CIR, carefully read your report. Thoroughly check every section, which has details about your other credit card accounts or loan accounts and also whether any lending institution has checked your CIR before.
Your CIR also provides basic personal information to banks and so it is also necessary to check your personal information such as name, date of birth, PAN number and address. This reflects what each bank or NBFC has recorded so it is important to notify any inaccuracies you may find.
Typically member Banks and NBFCs update their records on a monthly basis and hence the mistake often occurs because the member bank is yet to share the latest information about you with the CIC. But there may be other situations when there may be a mistake or a query that you would like to discuss with your lender. You can talk to the lending institution directly or to the CIC.
Correcting the errors
If you find a mistake in your CIR or you have a query regarding the information in your report, it is important to quickly address the query and fix the mistake. However, no CIC will be able to make any amends to the data by themselves without the written permission of the bank or NBFCs concerned. A CIC is only a custodian of the credit information about you. The bank and the NBFC, which provides you with a loan or a credit card, are the owners of the information.
If the mistake is agreed to by the bank or NBFC, the correct information may be updated the next time the information is sent to a CIC as per their regular schedule. However, if you are in urgent need of the amendment, you can pursue your bank to instruct the CIC to update the information before the regular update.
As per the Credit Information Companies Regulation Act, 2005 which governs the working of a CIC, a bank or an NBFC has to provide a resolution to your query or request for modification within 30 days.
(The writer is Managing Director, Experian Credit Information Company of India.)
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.