Your credit score indicates your financial health, thereby determining your creditworthiness. Credit scores are provided by institutions such as CIBIL, Experian etc., among which, CIBIL is the most popularly used mechanism for lending. Credit bureaus assign a score to you on the basis of evaluation of your loan repayment habits and credit card history.
By: Adhil Shetty | Published: March 24, 2017 12:46 PM | NDTV Profit

Your credit score indicates your financial health, thereby determining your creditworthiness. Credit scores are provided by institutions such as CIBIL, Experian etc., among which, CIBIL is the most popularly used mechanism for lending. Credit bureaus assign a score to you on the basis of evaluation of your loan repayment habits and credit card history.

How to read your credit score
The credit score is typically represented in a triple-digit number ranging between 300 and 900 points. While higher points reflect financial discipline and a good credit standing, lower credit scores reflect poor repayment habits—which, in turn, could reveal poor money management skills. Banks and lending institutions usually prefer a credit score of 750 and above for issuing a loan or credit card. A high credit score could help you get loans at the best interest rates available. For people who do not have a credit history, the credit score reflects to be -1.

What does your credit score say about you?
Let’s look at the various aspects of your financial life that your credit score throws light on.

Timeliness: A crucial component in computing your credit score is timeliness in repaying loans and credit card bills. CIBIL, for instance, gives timely repayment about 35% weightage in calculation of credit scores. If you pay your bills on time, you are considered to be disciplined and committed towards the repayment of your dues. While a one-off case of delay may be ignored by the credit card company, repeated delays would earn negative scores.

Trustworthiness: Banks and financial institutions consider you to be an eligible borrower if your credit score is robust, as it reflects trustworthiness. A poor score indicates increased dependence on credit and lack of timeliness in repayment, which after a point may reflect lack of integrity and therefore intent to pay back.

Credit hungriness: A credit report also indicates your dependence on credit. This is assessed in terms of your credit utilization ratio, which refers to the percentage of credit you use from what’s available. A high credit utilization ratio shows credit hungriness irrespective of when you repay it.

What if you don’t have a credit score?
It may be great to never have to take a loan. But from the point of view of developing a credit history, it’s important to have some form of credit, be it loans, credit cards, or EMI store purchases.

If you have never availed any form of credit, the credit bureaus and banks wouldn’t have a credit history to analyse you with. This could make things tricky for you if you approach a bank for loan in future.

So, how do you show a history of timely repayment? You can start with taking a secured loan or credit card and maintain a record of timely repayment to be on the good books of the banks.
(The writer is CEO, BankBazaar.com)

Source : https://goo.gl/RiZa4E