Loan apps and credit cards have made financing easier than ever. Today, you can easily avail instant cash through a loan app or make new purchases using a credit card. But to conduct these borrowing and lending in a safe environment, lenders rely on the credit bureaus to give a detailed insight on your credit behaviour. These credit bureaus maintain a detailed record of your borrowing history, a record of your repayment behaviour, missed instalments, closure of old loans, details of your credit card usage and more. Based on all these details, the credit bureaus assign you a credit score ranging from 300 to 900. This score plays a very important role when you apply for unsecured loans like an instant loan.
There are four major credit bureaus in India – CIBIL, Equifax, Experian, and CRIF High Mark. The score assigned by Experian is called as Experian Credit score and the score assigned by the CIBIL is called a CIBIL score.
About Experian and CIBIL
A popular CIC in India, Experian is a Securities and Exchange Board of India approved credit bureau. It is the first company to receive its CIC license under the Credit Information Companies Regulation Act (CICRA) 2005. The CIC assigns credit score to both individuals as well as organisations based on their credit history records that it collects from across institutions.
Now, while Experian received its first CIC status under the mentioned Act of 2005, CIBIL is the first credit bureau in India. It is one of the most widely used credit bureaus for the purpose of accessing credit score of individuals as well as businesses. With credit records collected and maintained for over a 1,000 million customers, including businesses and individuals, TarnsUnion CIBIL is also the most recognised one in India.
The Experian and CIBIL Credit Score – A Common Ground
Before moving into the differences between the two bureaus, you must know the common points. The most important aspect is that the credit score issued by both the CICs span between the same range of 300 and 900. Also, the suitable credit score range for borrowing remains between 700 and 900 for both.
When availing a loan through a loan app a minimum score is not mandatory, but a high score from either bureau works in your favour. For borrower understanding, it is crucial to know that most popular loan apps rely on CIBIL for this score, especially for individual borrowings, as it is the widely accepted bureau.
Know How Experian Credit Score Differs from a CIBIL Score
- Object of credit score issue
The CIBIL score is issued with the objective of determining the repayment capacity of the borrower. Alternatively, Experian issues the score for financial position determination of the entity. This objective also impacts their overall acceptability in the Indian context of lending and borrowing. For instance, you may thus find lending platforms like loan apps that rely on CIBIL score for determining your repayment capacity.
- Calculating parameters
Even though the score ranges issued by the two bureaus are the same, the parameters they use for score calculation differ. Experian relies on the likes of loan record, current credit information transactions, account balances, etc., to determine the score. For CIBIL, these parameters vary across debt to income ration, credit utilisation ratio, credit mix availed, repayment history, and past repayment defaults to compute the score.
- Acceptability
Given that CIBIL has its origin in India even though backed by the American company TransUnion, it is widely accepted as a CIC here. It was also the first CIC of India and has most financial institutions as its members. Contrarily, the exposure of Experian at this scale is missing, thus restricting its acceptability.
- RBI approval
Credit score from CIBIL has also received the RBI approval for the purpose of assessing borrowing profiles. The Experian score has not received any such approval.
Conclusion
CIBIL score as well as Experian score are both credit scores assigned by these credit bureaus that help lenders assess the risk associated with your loan application. Though most of the parameters that both bureaus rely on to calculate the credit score are same, there are a few striking differences.
CIBIL uses the Empirical method to calculate your credit score, while Experian uses the FIFO technique to calculate the credit score. National institutes rely on the CIBIL score to take lending decisions, while, many global financial institutes rely on the Experian score.
Despite the differences, both CIBIL score and Experian score have distinct roles to offer for lenders as well as borrowers. Many lenders consider both the scores, or take an average of both the scores to analyse the risk associated with your credit profile.
