Credit reports and your rights

A credit report is a lender’s-eye view of your borrowing history, kept by credit information companies (the bureaus). Lenders read it before deciding whether to lend and at what rate. You are entitled to read it too.

What the rules say

• One free full report a year, from each bureau. Each credit information company must provide “one Free Full Credit Report (FFCR) including credit score, once, at any time, during a year (January – December), to individuals whose credit score is available”.
• It must be easy to find. The bureau must “prominently display the link for accessing the FFCR on its website (on the homepage itself)”.
• Scores share a scale. The Directions say “the credit scores shall be calibrated from 300 to 900 by a CIC”.
• You are told when someone looks. Bureaus must “send alerts through SMS/ email to customers when their CIR is accessed” by lenders. Lenders must also alert you when they report a default.
• Slow corrections cost the lender or bureau. If you complain about an error, you are “entitled to a compensation of ₹100 per calendar day in case their complaint is not resolved within a period of thirty calendar days”.
• Lenders report four times a month. Since 1 July 2026 a lender “shall submit credit information as on 9th, 16th, 23rd and last day of the month” to the bureaus. Until then the rule was fortnightly. A repayment or a missed payment therefore shows up within about a week of the next reporting date.

What to do with this

Get your free report from each bureau once a year and read it line by line. Look for loans you do not recognise, closed loans still shown as open, and late payments you made on time. Raise errors with both the lender and the bureau, in writing, and note the date: the thirty days run from then.

What we could not confirm

• We read the reporting rules as they apply to NBFCs. Parallel Directions exist for banks; we expect them to match but did not open them.
• Checking your own report is widely said not to affect your score. We did not find that statement in the texts we read, so we leave it out.