Test your Financial Fitness

It is important that you know what your financial status is at all the times especially if you are planning on taking a loan or availing a credit card. It will be useful even when you are facing any emergency situation. You can you will be in a better position to bargain and set the terms.

Just like how you like to be on top of your health and keep going in for a health check-up every so often to see how you are doing, it is important that you keep a track of your financials. The following are the steps to ensure the financial fitness:

1. The CIBIL Score must be in 3 digits ranging from 750 to 900.
2. Ensure that your credit bills, utility bills and bills of other service providers are paid on time.
3. Don’t max out on your credit cards. It is better to break down your credit balances and compare the limits of what you are allowed to take.
4. Have a mixed type of credit. Don’t just take unsecured loans, take secured loans as well.
5. Check the outstanding balance and see if you have made the payment, but the details have not been updated. You can intimate your provider to update the information in that case.
6. Check for errors on your personal data or address or the outstanding balance and immediately report them.
7. Check for the loan those were not initiated by you, late payments that you did not make, wrong address and identity information and for the credit enquiries that you did not make. It is the sign of identity theft and it is a serious offence which needs to be dealt with at the earliest.
8. Consciously keep track of your active and closed accounts.
9. See if you can consolidate and loans.

Credit monitoring is required at all times and highly recommended because it is very easy for a person to steal your identity and default in your name. While you are doing this also keep a track of the loans that you have stood as a guarantor for as if they default on the payments, you will be legally bound to make the payments for the loan.