Default on Loan Can Severely Affect Your Credit Score

Authored article by Akshay Mehrotra, Co-Founder & CEO, Fibe.in

Default on a loan can severely affect your credit history and may dramatically reduce your chance of getting any credit.

Sometimes when we are young we choose not paying credit card for various reasons. Sometimes we just don’t have the money, sometime, the utility of the benefit accrued from the loan is long gone and other priorities calls for money ahead of repayment or Sometimes, we are just outright lazy and keep doing late payments while knowing the consequences.

The fact is if once a delinquent, always a delinquent customer, Banks and other financial Institutions treat you with caution. It is necessary to understand how Financial Institutions look at your repayment track record and what are these credit bureaus. In 2005, CICRA (Credit Information Companies (Regulations) Act) came which paved way for specialized institutions for monitoring and recording all loans taken from Banks and other Financial Institutions. These companies (known as CICs) collect, process and present information about each borrower and assign a credit score. Today, there are four CICs in India, CIBIL, Equifax, Experian and CRIF High Mark. Hence, A credit history of every customer submitted to all four bureaus, which allows Financial Institutions to dive into and judge whether a customer applying is worthy to give loan or not.

Credit information by definition could means any information relating to :—

• The amounts and the nature of loans, amounts outstanding by a credit institution to any borrower;
• The nature of security provided by borrower;
• The guarantee furnished;

Does giving guarantee for someone else’s Loan also impact Scores? – The answer in short is yes. The financial institutions send the guarantor details to CICs, in addition to a person taking loans. Hence it is important to understand that the role of a guarantor is crucial. If the borrower defaults, then you as the guarantor will suffer too as you too will be in the “defaulter” basket. Thus, Think hard before becoming a guarantor.

Not performing on loans and credit products severely impacts your credit score; a credit score basically is a system that enables a credit institution to assess the creditworthiness and capacity of a borrower to repay his/her loan and advance. While it is subjective and depends on Institutions’ internal policies, but according to my understanding a late payment on a credit card will severely impact one’s chance of getting a personal loan or Home loan.

Hence, taking a loan from one bank and thinking no other bank will know the credit history, is a fool’s paradise. If you are not repaying your credit, the information will be accessed by the financial institution who can lend to you and it will affect their decision.

Image Source:moneycrashers.com