A credit score is a three-digit number between 300-900 that banks and other lending institutions use to ascertain the “creditworthiness” of individuals or businesses. This refers to their ability to repay borrowed credit in the form of debts, or loans.

Having a good credit score is important, as it can give potential lenders more confidence in approving requests for loans and other credit

In India, there are four credit information bureaus that calculate this credit score – TransUnion CIBIL, Experian, CRIF High Mark, and Equifax. The Reserve Bank of India has made it mandatory for all these four companies to make it easy to check credit scores online. They are also required to provide one free credit score report each year.

1. Directly from the credit bureau websites

As mentioned above, credit information bureaus will allow one free credit score check. This can be done easily through the credit bureau’s website.

These are the steps to be followed:

• Step 1: Go to the website of the credit rating company, such as the CIBILwebsite, or the CRIF Highmark website
• Step 2: Login using your login credentials, or create a new account. To do so, you will need to use your name, contact number, and email address.
• Step 3: You will also need to attach an ID proof, like your PAN card, Aadhaar card, or passport
• Step 4: Once this has been completed submit the form.
• Step 5: You should then receive an OTP to your registered phone number and email ID so that your identity can be verified
• Step 6: Once verified, you can log in and go to the dashboard
• Step 7: may be asked for additional information may be required, such as questions about your loans and credit cards. 
• Step 8: After this is completed, you will be able to view your credit score on the screen, and your complete credit report will be delivered to your registered email-id.

Remember that this kind of free account will only allow you to check your credit score only once a year. If you wish to check your credit score more times, you do so with a paid account, or paid monthly reports.

2. From your bank

A number of banks will allow customers to check their credit score once a year for free through their websites. You can ask your bank if they provide this facility.

If this is available, you will likely find this feature on your bank’s netbanking website, or on the bank’s mobile app.

3. Using third party apps

There are certain apps that will allow registered users to check their credit score and credit report for free. Paid versions of these apps might also let you monitor changes in your credit profile, get daily updates, and more.

Some of these apps include:

• CIBIL – the CIBIL app comes from one of the four main credit bureaus. It lets you check your CIBIL score and credit report every 24 hours, as well as getting alerts about changes to your credit profile, tailored loan offers, and more. 
• Experian – another app from a major credit bureau, the Experian app offers regular Credit Report updates, and credit monitoring with alerts. 
• Mint – the Mint app lets users track their finances, as well as providing a credit score analysis and credit alerts. Their scores are based on those from Equifax. 
• OneScore – the OneScore app lets you check your credit score from CIBIL and Experian, and also gives tips on how to improve your credit score, and alerts on changes.
• IndiaLends – IndiaLends was one of India’s first credit score and analytics app. This app helps you get your credit score for free
• CreditMantri – CreditMantri is an app that provides you with a credit analysis and free credit score
• CreditSmart – CreditSmart is an online platform that calculates your credit score, provides daily updates, information on financial securities, and more.
• ETMoney – the ETMoney app lets users know their score, get insights to improve it, and even provide curated loan offers matching your score.

As individuals are assigned credit scores ranging from 300-900, in India, businesses and companies are assigned a similar rank ranging from 1 to 10. In this case, 1 is the best possible rank, while 10 is the worst possible. However, any rank between 1-4 is considered good.

And the way that individuals may check their credit scores, companies can check their Company Credit Report (CCR). Note that these reports are generally not provided for free, but require a small fee.

Here are the steps to be followed to check a CCR via the CIBIL website:

• Step 1: Visit the website of the credit rating company, such as the CIBILwebsite
• Step 2: Fill out the provided form with the required details, such as legal constitution, registered address and contact details of the company, and the name and details of the applicant requesting the CCR, and any additional information.
• Step 3: Make the required payment using a debit card, credit card, or net banking.
• Step 4: Once this has been completed, you will be assigned a unique Registration ID and Transaction ID which can be used to access and track the next steps.
• Step 5: The next thing you will need to do is to upload your KYC documents.
• Step 6: After this is completed, you receive the CCR and CIBIL Rank to your registered email-id.