Credit card hacks!

Why do cyber thieves take the time to wreak havoc? Since hackers are going after the companies that hold your information, it’s hard to stop them from getting your information. All the same, you can take steps to minimize the damage. Here’s our guideline to deal with the uncertainty.

Ask for the new card

Call your bank and demand a new card. It’s not likely to put up a fight as the bank is responsible for paying false charges. In the event that the bank does, don’t back down on your demand.

Renew your password

If you have done any online business with the affected company – or you have an account with it – change your password right away. Make it more than 8 characters and difficult to figure out. If it’s easy for you to remember, it’s easy for a hacker to crack. While you’re at it, change and strengthen all of your passwords.

                    

Filing a complaint

Call the non-emergency number of your local police department. Say that you were a victim of identity theft and wish to file a report. This makes your status as a victim official.

Block your credit

You don’t want anybody opening up new lines of credit in your name. Blocking doesn’t allow anybody to access your credit report without your approval. Creditors probably won’t approve an application without having access to the person’s credit report.

Monitoring your account online

Don’t wait to check it when the statement arrives; check today. Keep monitoring daily for at least 30 days after your new card arrives. If you see fraudulent activity, call the bank and report it immediately. Often you can dispute charges online, but calling and talking to somebody assures that the issuer has record of your dispute.
Visit- www.cibilconsultants.com
Source: Secondary

Error in report? May fall in disputes!

The business of reporting consumer credit is highly regulated. Your Credit Information Report (CIR) plays a large part in the loan application process. Hence, any discrepancy in your CIR may result in reduced chances of a loan approval. Therefore, it is important that the information on your CIR is accurate and updated. You have the legal right to obtain a free copy of your credit report from any of the major credit bureaus once a year, which is a right you should certainly exercise. If you find information that is incorrect, you need to understand which errors you can dispute, along with how to report them.

Your credit report holds information about which companies have granted you credit, how you have managed your loan obligations and who has performed an inquiry into your profile. The only way to spot incorrect information is to review your credit history yourself.

Errors commonly arise for two reasons:

1. Creditor makes a mistake when supplying information to the credit bureaus,
2. Or the bureaus do not correctly compile your otherwise disbursed information from their databases whenever your credit report is requested.

Commonly, these errors result from mistaken addresses, mistyped social security numbers or confusion between similarly named borrowers or relatives.

Disputed fields in your report

Common areas of dispute include listed debts that are not yours, debts that are yours that are not listed on the credit report, debts that reflect an incorrect or incomplete payment history, debts that should have been removed from the credit report due to age and are still listed on your report, and inquiries from lenders that you did not authorize to pull your report.

Resolving the mistakes

The easiest way to fix a mistake is to approach the original creditor that sent the information to the bureau. The creditor is legally required to transmit a correction when it knows that it has made a reporting error, which can save you some unnecessary paperwork. A dispute request can be raised based on either a CIR purchased by you directly from CIBIL or a CIR accessed by the Credit Institution (CI) with whom you have applied for a loan to maintain your federally protected rights, but this is still a faster solution.

The CIBIL is a wonderful resource if you are considering disputing an item. It can help you figure out which items can be disputed and what kind of documentation or other proof you need, and it can supply advice on how to proceed. The investigation is normally completed within 30 days. It is possible that your dispute may not result in a corrected report right away.

 Source- Secondary

3 things to look for in your Cibil credit report

You are advised to check your Cibil report every year. Just like one would take a annual health check up to ensure all parameters are within the normal range and no red flags are popping up, so also one should check the CIBIL report annually i.e. do a financial annual check up.

There are no reporting errors from the lender

You should check your Cibil credit report at least once a year to make sure there are no errors that could keep you from getting credit or best available terms on a loan. You should also check your report before making a major purchase that would involve a loan, such as a house or a car.

While sending information to the credit bureau the lender or the bank could have made some errors in reporting your credit transactions. The first step is to find the errors by actually reading the report and not tossing it in a file after reading the Cibil score. When Lata got hold of her Cibil report and read it she saw it still showed an a outstanding amount of a credit card payment, which had expired and surrendered over 2 years ago. This wrong information was greatly responsible for lowering her Cibil credit score. So if you find mistakes, the immediate action should be to fill out the dispute form for the credit reporting bureau. If the error is actually with the creditor who reported the account, you may also need to write a letter to the creditor or alternatively raise the dispute with Credit Bureau for correction. Maintaining a high Cibil score is essential to a healthy financial future.

Is your identity stolen?

Check your report for any credit applications/enquiries that have arisen there are not made by you.  For instance, if you see a couple of home loan application in your Cibil report that you have not made, it can be a sure sign of identity theft. Look out for signs of identity theft. Alerts for possible fraud include:

• Loan accounts that you have not opened
• Credit inquiries not made by you
• Any late payments or defaults that were not made by you
• Address and Identity information which are not yours
• Phone number reported which you have never used

Incase you suspect an identity theft, immediately report any suspicious information or activity to the credit bureau that issued the Cibil report and to your banks too.

Account information

A large bulk of the information in the Cibil report is your account information - a list of your loans and credit card accounts. This is a good time to review your accounts. You can cross check the various accounts, the credit limit, current balance and payment history. Make a note of accounts that were closed or made inactive by the bank and those that have late payments or negative remarks associated with it. See which ones are active and if you would like to consolidate any of them, organise paperwork in the accounts and in general do the financial housekeeping we tend to postpone.

Source-secondary

Is Your Home a Collateral for Other Loans?

Collateral means to pledge an asset as a security against repayment of a loan. A collateral can be forfeited if there is a default on the loan. When you take Home Loan, you pledge your Home as a collateral for repayment of a Home Loan. But what if bank say that besides Home Loan, you have to give your Home as a collateral for any other loan or borrowing from the bank. On top of it, you also provide the commitment that this clause will cover all the past, present or any future borrowings from the Bank. Sounds Scary !!! But it is TRUE. Knowingly or Unknowingly, whenever you avail Home Loan, under Home Loan Agreement you also agree to clause “Indebtedness of the Borrower“. This is also known as Cross Collateralisation. By agreeing to this cause, you give your Home as a collateral for other loans or borrowings from the bank. Not all Home Loan Providers include this clause, but experts observed this clause in Home Loan Agreement of most of the Banks.

Ref to the sample copy of Home Loan Agreement of an Indian bank available online. Refer Article 1, clause 1.1, sub-clause “m” on page no 4. The definition is as follows

“Indebtedness of the Borrower” means any indebtedness of the Borrower to the Bank at any time for and in respect of monies borrowed, contracted or raised (whether or not for cash consideration) or liabilities contracted by whatever means (including under guarantees, indemnities, acceptance, bond, credits, deposits, hire purchase and leasing by the Borrower or by a person or entity related to or connected with the Borrower); and shall also be deemed to include any indebtedness of any associate or affiliate of the Borrower or any entity related to or connected with the Borrower, towards the Bank or any associates or affiliates of the Bank.”

To understand, let’s take an example of one lady. Her husband expired 4 years ago which put the entire family into financial problem. She was serving Home Loan from her salary. For her daughter’s education, she took the personal loan from the bank. Her Home Loan provider “Bank” happily approved the personal loan without any hassles. As her Mother in law is Class I legal heir of her husband’s wealth therefore under family settlement it was decided to sell the house. The proceeds will be divided equally between her and her Mother in Law. Recently, she closed the Home Loan but to her surprise Bank refused to issue NOC against Home Loan. Without NOC, she cannot sell the property. Bank put a condition to clear Personal Loan before they issue NOC for Home Loan. In short, Bank revoked Indebtedness of the Borrower clause in the Home Loan Agreement. In laymen terms, besides home loan her home is also a collateral for Personal Loan without her knowledge. Legally, the Home Loan Agreement is signed by her therefore she cannot claim ignorance.

Implications of Home as Collateral for Other Loans:

1. Indebtedness of the Borrower usually covers all loans/borrowing of a borrower i.e. Past, Present & Future from the bank.

2. Your Home will be collateral till you clear all the balance outstanding against all the loans with the banks.

3. The bank may include the clause to cover its associates, affiliates or subsidiaries under this clause. What it implies is that suppose you availed Home Loan from Bank A. Now, you availed Consumer Loan from ABC Finance Limited. ABC Finance Limited is a subsidiary of Bank A. In this case, your Home will also act as a collateral for your Consumer Loan.

4. Though you are securing your unsecured loans like Personal Loan, Consumer Loan etc by giving your Home as a Collateral. Unfortunately, you are paying higher interest rate for unsecured Loans. Normally loans which are backed by collateral are secured loans and charged at lower Interest Rate.

5. Bank reserve right to set off any amount against other borrowings without any intimation and consent of the borrower. For example, person defaulted on the credit card in past. It was reflecting in his CIBIL score also. Both credit card and Home Loan was availed from the same bank. Now the bank was smart enough and adjusted few Home Loan Installments against the credit card default. Normally, the borrower doesn’t check Home Loan statement but while going through some other details. As the balance outstanding against credit card was cleared willingly or unwillingly him. When we requested to update the same in CIBIL. Bank replied that since the account is closed therefore Bank cannot update the same in CIBIL. On raising the dispute, Bank referred the relevant clause in Home Loan Agreement.

6. Bank also reserves the right to encash PDC’s (Post Dated Cheques) deposited for availing Home Loan for other loans with the bank.

In short, by availing Home Loan from the bank you are giving your Home as security or collateral for all the Borrowings/Cross Default. All the amounts due to the bank or its affiliates/associates/Subsidiary will be due under Home Loan Agreement. It will be backed by Home as a collateral.

How to Safeguard your Financial Interests?

Though Home Loan agreement is standard format and bank will not exclude clause related to Indebtedness of the Borrower for one borrower. It is important to follow these points to safeguard your financial interests.

1. Read the Home Loan Agreement Carefully: You should read the document before signing. If you don’t understand certain clauses then it is always advisable to take professional help. In case, you have any apprehensions about the clause related to Indebtedness of the Borrower i.e. giving your Home as collateral for other loans then check other options. Before you apply for Home Loan, you should ask for a sample copy of Home Loan Agreement. If you will back out at later stage then it may impact your CIBIL Score.

2. Selection of Home Loan Provider: You should select your Home Loan provider carefully. Even if you have agreed to the inclusion of Indebtedness of the Borrower clause then you should ensure that you don’t have any existing financial relationship with the bank. In future also you should not avail any financial products especially loans, credit card, overdraft etc from the same bank.

3. Check your Statements Regularly: Many people have a habit of not going through the monthly/quarterly statements, but it is important to check them as and when you will receive. For any suspicious transaction, you should immediately bring to the notice of the bank.
Visit: www.cibilconsultants.com
Source: Secondary

Importance of Hiring Credit Repair Agencies

Your credit score plays vital role in determining your financial health. It not just helps in getting your loan approved, but there is much more associated with it. It is important to keep a check on your credit score to enjoy sound financial health and goodwill. There are many ways of attaining good credit score. If you have tried your hand at fixing your credit report but have been failed to attain desired results, you can always take help of credit repair agencies to improve credit score. There are many benefits of hiring credit repair agencies for improving your credit score. 

·         Most of the people are not aware of credit repair process such as how to get credit report from CIBIL and how to improve credit score; credit repair agencies can help you with all these problems. 

·         These firms have sufficient resources to handle your disputes. They usually have a team of experts having complete knowledge of rules and regulations governing credit repair procedures. 

·         You don’t need to dedicate your important time to fix your credit report. Your hired firm will take care of all your credit repair tasks. 

·         They will analyse your credit report and will suggest you the right ways to improve your credit score over a period of time. 

Credit repair agencies help in improving your credit score and maintaining your credit health in long run. It is important to choose credit repair agencies wisely to reap maximum benefits out of it.

Source: Secondary

How to fix errors in your Cibil credit report?

Your Cibil credit report is an important document that comes to your aid for everything from availing of a loan to a credit card application and will sometimes even be referred to by a prospective employer. A discrepancy in your Cibil report thus will not only cause your loan application to be rejected, but may also cost you the possibilities of getting a better job. However, if you find that there are errors in your Cibil report, the good news is that you can go about with dispute resolution to get an error free report.

The nature of errors can be something mundane as mistakes in the spelling your name, age, address or PAN card. These errors may not necessarily ruin your Cibil score, but need to be corrected nevertheless. The really damaging errors in your report may arise from a mistaken identity when you find there are someone else's loan details in your report or an overdue amount that is on a loan you have not taken! Such an error can bring down your Cibil score drastically for no fault of yours. If you find such an error exists in your Cibil report, here's what you need to do to rectify it.

The first step

The first step is obviously obtaining a copy of your credit report. More often than, not such errors happen because people undermine the importance of obtaining their credit reports till they hit a roadblock in their loan application process. If you find that there is an error in your report you will need to "initiate" a dispute by submitting a dispute resolution form.Once Cibil receives this form, it takes approximately 30 days to resolve a dispute. This is however subject to the time taken by the credit institution (bank or NBFC or card issuer) to send the required information to Cibil.

For lender related disputes

If you find that the lender has supplied incorrect data to Cibil with regards to your loan details (eg: an overdue amount that you may have cleared is still showing on your report, or a loan is being shown as active even after its closure) you can contact your bank and report this discrepancy. Your bank will then contact Cibil and give the correct information regarding your loan account, after which the information will be updated on your Cibilreport.  Once you get a confirmation from your bank about the rectification of this information in their records, it takes 45 days for this rectified information to show up on your Cibil report.

In case of a mistaken identity

If you find that your report is showing the details of a loan or a credit card that you have not availed of, you will have to raise a dispute regarding the same using the online dispute redressal mechanism of Cibil. Once Cibil receives your application, it will take up the issue with the concerned lender and if it reverts saying that your complaint is a valid one, it will make the necessary changes and submit the rectified information to Cibil. On the basis of this new information that it receives, Cibil will rectify your credit report within 30 working days.

Problems that can arise

If the errors in your report are regarding your own loan or credit card account, the redressal mechanism is easy, but in case of mistaken identities where the bank may have submitted the information of someone else's loan account under your name, the difficulties are much more. The bank in such cases will need to get in touch with the person with whom your identity has been confused and follow up with him. However, since banks mostly outsource their collection process to third parties, there may be some lack in documents or adequate proof. In such cases, the dispute resolution mechanism can go up to more than 60 days.

If the redressal is not satisfactory

If you are not satisfied with the dispute resolution process of the credit bureau, you may approach the bureau directly again, this time making a specific request about what you want. More often than not Cibil will have resolved your dispute in the first shot, even if it does take a little longer if the process in a complicated one.

Your Cibil report  is your passport for a smooth loan application process and is increasingly assuming importance in other spheres of life as well. The prudent thing to do therefore is not to wait till you apply for a loan to take a look at your credit information. Obtain your Cibil report at least once a year to ensure that it is free of errors, or in case there are discrepancies, there is enough time to correct them.

To avoid the complicated prodecure of dispute resolution just book an appointment at www.cibilconsultants.com and get end to end solution for rectification of errors.

It is necessary to keep track on your CIBIL report !

Do you know that more than 50% of consumers have errors or mistakes in their credit report?  It will directly affect your credit score because the bureaus use information from your credit files to calculate your credit score. But if you keep checking your credit report then you can easily correct it on time. Here are few steps on how you can keep track on your CIBIL report?

 Get Your Credit Report:
 Get a copy of your credit report and review it regularly, identify changes and any incorrect  accounts information.

Check Your Credit Report for Errors:
Check your credit report very cautiously for any errors —like accounts that are not yours, missed out accounts, loan amounts are incorrect, account balances which are incorrect, showing late payments, etc.

 Report your Errors to the Credit Agency:
If you detect any error in your report, immediately report it to your credit counsellor. Be specific and explain exactly why an item is inaccurate in your report. Remember that  credit agencies receive information from your creditors and then prepare your credit score.

Contact the Creditor:
Call the creditor which is responsible for an error in your report and then let them know that why you are disputing an item which is mention in your CIBIL report.

Wait for a Resolution:
A credit agency can take maximum 45 days to resolve and investigate your dispute against the error in your report with your creditors.

Get Your Dispute Results:
you will get notification from the agency about the investigation results. The error will get removed from your credit report if it is confirmed by the agency.

 Add a Statement of Dispute:
 If an error was not removed and you disagree with the decision, you can add a statement of dispute of up to 100 words to your credit report. That allows you tell your side of the story and future creditors and merchants may take your statement into consideration when evaluating you.

Get your credit report ,renew, revamp and retain your score along with dispute resolution by opting for service packages available at www.cibilconsultants.com

Source: Secondary

Let us understand the CREDIT SCORE !

In the world of finance, credit plays an important role in meeting our wishes. Be it the dream of owning a big car or a house . But getting loans easily is not true anymore. Lenders no more look at your earning capacity alone but also factor in your past repayment track record in the form of a credit score before making any kind of decision. In such a scenario associating one's name with a bad credit score may prove to be disastrous.

Are you planning a loan to buy a house of your dreams or replace your old car with a new sedan? These days it is a precursor if you are planning on a loan in the near future unless you want to be shocked with an end moment rejection. Credit score takes into account the credit history of the individual and predicts his willingness to repay the loan on time. Banks and lenders evaluate customers based on their ability to pay and their willingness to pay. Ability is your pay cheque, while willingness is your credit report and score. A higher score implies better chances of getting credit from the lenders.

Other than CIBIL,there are other credit bureaus also who provide credit scores. Of now almost all credit bureaus provide score ranging from 300 to 900. 
Higher the score, the better it is. Though this is definitely true, it's up to individual lenders to decide their acceptable level of risk. Depending on their risk appetite, they decide their credit score cut-off for accepting a customer's loan application. Also, what may be considered as a bad credit by one lender may be perfectly acceptable to another. For instance, a loan approval by one lender, might require the minimum score to be 750. Another lender might require 700 or lower. Therefore, if one lender does not accept your application on the basis of your credit score it is advisable to check with another one who might accept it. However, remember, lenders offering loans at lower credit scores, generally offer loans at a higher rate of interest. Hence a lower credit score may still get you a loan but it could work out to be a costly affair.

At present, the lenders report the credit history of their customers to all the four credit bureaus but they access only the Cibil report to make the decision. You must be wondering why? Cibil was launched in 2004 and has credit data on individuals from then on, while the others started operations in 2010 and do not have that advantage. If your credit score is high across bureau, it will act as a double confirmation that you are a disciplined and a good customer and therefore worthy of a loan at an attractive rate of interest. The good news is that you can raise a dispute resolution with CIBIL in case you come across any discrepancy in the report generated by it.

So, what are you waiting for? Get hold of your credit score from credit bureau and fulfill your wishes more economically.
Visit www.cibilconsultants.com

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Get negativities removed from Your Credit Report !!

Luckily, it is possible to remove something off your credit report without having to wait for years to delete automatically. It’s smart to remove something from your credit report if you’re trying to clean up your credit report for a mortgage or car loan. Perhaps the negative entries are just bothering you!

Whether you’re dealing with late payments, collections, charge offs, or foreclosures, there are several effective techniques that will clean up your credit report rather quickly.

Apply for a Credit Dispute 

Before you try anything else, you should first make sure the negative entry on your credit report doesn’t have any inaccuracies. Studies have shown that most people’s credit reports contain errors.

The trick here is to look for any errors whatsoever on each negative entry. Just because the entry itself is accurate doesn't mean the details about the entry on your credit report don’t contain errors. In fact, you’ll find out that it most likely does.

The first step is to get a copy of your credit report and closely look over each entry and check each detail against your records.

You should check the following things:

• Account number
• Balance
• Date opened
• Account status (e.g., Closed)
• Payment status (e.g., Collection)
• High Balance
• Credit Limit
• Anything else that appears to be inaccurate

Have a professional remove the negative entry

Lastly, have a professional handle it and just be done with the whole thing.They’ll take care of you.Every time you find an error, communicate what is inaccurate along with the accurate value to the hired professional. They will send the letter to the credit agencies asking them to correct the inaccuracies or remove the entry. The best part is that many times they can’t verify each detail about the entry so it’s removed.

For Dispute resolution a detailed procedure is to be followed which can be done by our experts in this domain.Book an appointment and get your disputes settled in a short frame of time !!

Visit our website www.cibilconsultants.com