The Covid-19 outbreak has led to many people losing their employment and experiencing salary losses worldwide. The RBI extended the 3-month moratorium on loan repayments. The CIBIL score was the most adversely impacted in such a situation. Many lost the opportunity to get their preferred interest rates and pre-approved bank offers. Therefore, it has become crucial to safeguard the CIBIL score from the global pandemic.
Importance Of A CIBIL Score
The lender uses a CIBIL score to determine a borrower’s eligibility for loan acceptance. A borrower may not be able to acquire the loan amount they want for making large purchases or emergencies without an excellent CIBIL score (a score between 750 and 900). If the borrower’s CIBIL score falls below 750, the lender might not provide a high loan amount and give limited credits.
6 Steps To Protect Your Credit Score After Financial Stress From Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought a jolt to the business due to lockdown. This has directly impacted the credit score. Yet, it is crucial to maintain the credit score for getting loan approvals. To improve your credit rating, you can follow six simple steps mentioned below:
- Analyse your credit report
Make a CIBIL score login and download your credit report. Verify whether there has been any suspicious activity or if there is any misreporting. You can check the CIBIL score thrice a year and take timely action if you experience anything wrong with the report. This step is crucial to ensure accuracy and protect the credit score because incorrect information can reduce the borrower’s creditworthiness.
- Repay the expensive loans
Amongst all the loans you apply for, prioritise repayment of expensive loans. Expensive loans significantly affect the CIBIL score. Therefore, to maintain a good history of timely payments, pay it off before any other loans. Once done with paying off the expensive loans, repay the comparatively cheaper loans quickly to maintain the score.
- Minimise credit utilisation
During pandemic situations, many people utilise the maximum credits in the account. However, you should avoid doing so and keep the credit utilisation percentage till 30. The credit utilisation ratio can affect the final CIBIL score if it exceeds this amount.
- Clear the credit card debt
The CIBIL score may be impacted by credit card debt. Therefore, pay off the debt to keep your score static. Make smaller payments if you can’t pay the whole amount in the initial instalment to prevent your score from changing drastically.
- Make payments on time.
Delay in payment can add to the penalty. This penalty is like a red flag to the report and can decrease the CIBIL score. Hence, try to make payments on time. If you need to make multiple payments and EMIs on term loans, set reminders for each to make timely payments. You can check the CIBIL score after making a CIBIL score login to ensure if the credit score has changed or remained the same after the payment.
- Postpone taking new loans and maintain one loan at a time
During a crisis like Covid-19, stay away from taking new loans. Overdrafts, term loans, credit lines, and credit card balances reflect the CIBIL score. Hence taking a new loan and paying any EMI can be challenging. Clear one loan and then take another loan to balance the score.
Conclusion
By following these steps, you can not only protect your CIBIL score after the financial crisis from Covid-19 but also improve the financial health of the report. These tips are important to maintain scores during and after the Covid-19 situation. However, if you face any financial difficulties, contact your lender to resolve them.