What does Your Experian Credit Report Include?
An Experian Credit Information Report (CIR) is a detailed summary of your credit history. It includes all the records of your payments, debts, defaults, loans, credit cards, recent enquiries and length of credit history. It gives lenders like banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFC) an idea of your creditworthiness.
The contents of the Experian Credit Information Report are mentioned below in detail:
- Current Application Information
- Experian Credit Score
- Report Summary
- Credit Account Summary: It shows all the total number of accounts, active accounts, closed accounts and settled accounts.
- Current Balance Account Summary: It shows the current balance account, settled amount, secure amount and unsettled amount.
- Credit Enquiry Summary: It shows all the credit enquiries made by you in the last 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, and 180 days.
- Non-Credit Summary: It shows all the non-credit enquiries made by you in the last 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, and 180 days.
- Credit Account Information
This section has all the details about your personal information including full name, gender, birth date, PAN number, email address, and mobile number.
In this section, the report will display your Experian credit score. An Experian credit score ranges from 300-900 and it is summarized from your Experian Credit Report. An Experian credit score of 750 and above is considered as ideal by most of the lenders.
This is an important section of the credit report. It contains detailed information of your accounts:
This section has the information about all your credit accounts like loans or credit cards. It has sections such as - name of the lender, account type, account number, ownership, date reported, account status, date opened, highest credit, current balance, and amount overdue.
Experian Credit Score
An Experian Credit Score is a numerical representation of your credit worthiness. The Experian credit score is calculated by the bureau after taking into consideration factors like debt amount, age of the credit, credit exposure, credit history, repayment behaviour, number of credit enquiries, loans, credit cards, among others. All the above information is present in detail your Experian credit report. An Experian credit score ranges from 300-900. A score of closer to 900 (750 and above) is considered great by the Experian credit bureau. A higher Experian credit score makes you eligible to receive quicker loan approvals and better credit cards.
How to Improve your Experian Credit Score
If you have a high credit score, you become eligible to get better deals on interest rates for loans as well credit cards with better benefits and reward points. Given below are some of the ways that will help you improve your Experian credit score:
- Pay all the bills on time: Timely payment of all the EMIs and utility bills will help you boost your credit score. The repayment history is responsible for 35% of your credit history. If you make late payments or don’t pay them at all, it will bring down your total credit score.
- Maintain low credit exposure: You should always try and maintain a low credit utilisation ratio which means use lesser than your credit card limit. Ideally, spending only 30%-40% of your credit limit is beneficial for your credit score.
- Monitor your credit report periodically: Checking of your credit report from time-to-time gives you a fair idea of your current credit health. By monitoring the credit report periodically, you can learn about the areas where you need to work in order to maintain a high credit score.
- Higher credit limit: Request your credit card lender to increase your credit limit. Once, the credit limit is increased, you should continue to maintain a low credit utilisation ratio.
- Avoid closing old accounts: Old accounts generally have a good credit history and therefore, closing them will have a negative impact on your credit score. The length of the credit history accounts for 15% of your total credit score.
Benefits of Checking Your Experian Credit Report
- Credit health status: When you check your credit report regularly, it helps you understand the current state of your credit health. Once you understand what are the areas where you are falling back, you can work on them and take measures to improve your credit health.
- Identity theft: Checking your credit report from time-to-time helps you ensure that there are no fraudulent activities on your credit account. It also allows you to check for possible identity theft as your report has information about all the accounts that are opened and activated.
- Incorrect information: Your Credit Report can have incorrect information in terms of your personal information like name, contact details and others. Moreover, there could be errors related to your credit accounts which could bring your score down.
How to Check Your Experian Credit Information Report and Experian Credit Score Online
In order to get your Experian Credit Information Report and Experian Credit Score online, you will have to complete the online application form by filling up basic personal details like first name, last name, birth date, PAN number, email ID, and mobile number. After duly filling all the aforementioned details, you will have to answer a couple of questions based on your credit accounts like loan or credit card. This process is necessary to verify your identity. Once all the application process is completed, you will have to pay a fee of Rs.399 (including GST). After successfully completing the payments and online authentication, you will get your Experian Credit Information Report and Experian Credit Score online in real-time. You will also receive a copy of report and score on your verified email address.
