Experian Credit Score - How to Check Your Experian Score for Free (2023)

What is an Experian credit score

An Experian credit score is a three-digit number from 300-850. Experian, one of the four credit bureaus operating in India, awards this credit score. The Experian credit score is an indicator of your ability to repay loans and overall creditworthiness. Essentially, it helps lenders decide whether you qualify for a credit card or loan. The higher your Experian score, the better your chances of getting a loan. Read on to learn more about Experian scores.

What is an Experian Credit Report?

An Experian Credit Report (CIR) is a detailed summary of a borrower's credit behavior and history. It is also a summary of your active credit card and loan accounts and your repayment history. In addition, it is home for all questions from financial institutions where you have applied for a loan. This information also helps the credit bureau determine your Experian credit score.

How To Check Your Experian Credit score Online

You can easily get your Experian credit report or Experian credit score from Experian's official portal itself for a nominal amount of INR 399 (including taxes). All you need to do is fill out an online form and verify your authenticity by answering a few questions about your credit portfolio. Once your identity has been successfully verified, you will immediately be presented with an Experian credit report and a real-time credit score. A copy will also be sent to your registered email address.

Steps to Check Experian Score and Free Report Online:

• Step 1:Visit Experian's official website and login to the customer portal.

• Step 2:Enter your personal details such as full name, email address, mobile number, date of birth, gender, PAN number and address.

• Step 3:Confirm your identity withOTPand click the 'Get Report' button.

Report results Experian

Experian's credit score ranges from 300 to 850. 850 is the highest score. Check out the table below to understand how a financial institution interprets your Experian score:

How Experian calculates your credit scores

Experian calculates credit scores using the FICO credit score model. This basically means that it takes certain aspects of your credit data into account and assigns a weight to each of those variables. The elements Experian considers and the weight given to them are as follows:

What does an Experian credit report consist of?

An Experian credit report is a report that shows your credit history, including your credit score. The report consists of the following details:

• Your personal information, as you have provided it.

• A summary of your credit score. It is the most important element of your report as it compares your entire credit history.

• The report also includes information about your current balance, outstanding loan amounts, and secured and outstanding amounts.

• You will also find all hard and soft credit applications against your report that you have submitted over the years.

• The report includes all non-credit questions you've asked in the past 7, 30, 90, and 180 days.

  See Also

  What is the Fico Score? Know all about it

• Experian also provides a summary of yourcreditworthinessin this report.

• The report also lists details related to your credit accounts, such as loans and credit cards.

Why the Experian Score Matters

Your Experian credit score is basically an indicator of your ability to repay your credit and is actually the first thing that lenders check when you apply for a credit card/loan. Therefore, if you want the chance to get a loan or credit card from a financial institution with attractive repayment terms or loan rates, make sure your Experian credit score is within the range that lenders consider ideal (between 750-850 ). If your Experian credit score is lower, you could get a loan or credit card with unfavorable repayment terms. If your credit score is even lower (below 650), chances are your credit card/loan application will be declined.

How to Improve Your Experian Credit score

You can improve your Experian credit score in the following ways:

• Pay off your loan/credit card bills on time:A surefire way to improve your Experian credit score over time is to pay your loan/credit card bills on time. If you can, consider paying off all or part of your loan and outstanding credit card debt.

• Maintain a low credit utilization ratio:Financial institutions recommend that you use no more than 30-40% of available credit at any given time, as recorded in your credit reports. If you use more than 40% of your available credit, there is a good chance that you will appear credit hungry and that the lender will even reject your application.

• Do not close old credit cards:It is recommended that you never close your old credit cards because they actually tell about your credit behavior over several years. Paying off your credit card debt on time for several years can have a positive impact on your Experian credit score.

• Ensure a healthy credit portfolio:You should always aim for a healthy mix of secured and unsecured loans. The dominance of unsecured forms of credit in your credit portfolio can lower your Experian credit score.

• Request new credit cards:like youget a new credit cardthe available credit is automatically increased to the limit of your new credit card. This new addition to your available credit will automatically lower your credit utilization rate and ultimately improve your overall credit score.

Benefits of getting your credit report from Experian

When you receive your Experian credit report, you know exactly where you stand in terms of creditworthiness. In addition, because Experian credit reports are detailed records of your credit behavior, you can easily report any inconsistencies, discrepancies, or potentially fraudulent transactions or identity theft.

Left unchecked, these anomalies can lower your Experian credit score, making it harder for you to get a loan or credit card in the future. If you notice such irregularities, you should report them to Experian to prevent them from causing a fall in your bloodcreditworthiness.

Factors That Affect Your Experian Credit Score

Some of the factors that affect your Experian credit score are:

• Your repayment history:The frequency with which you pay off your outstanding loan obligations greatly affects your credit score. You will have a good credit score and it will stay healthy if you make your payments on time. On the other hand, late or missed loan/credit card payments can cause your credit score to drop.

• Your Loan Utilization Rate:If you have a good credit utilization rate (about 40% or less), you have a healthy credit score. Going over the 40% mark can cause your Experian credit score to drop.

• Your credit mix:Ofcredit combinationthe ratio of unsecured to secured debt in your loan portfolio also determines your credit score. If unsecured loans make up a large portion of your loan portfolio, consider balancing it with secured forms of credit.

• Number of difficult questions:Applying for multiple loans or credit cards in a short amount of time can spell disaster for your Experian score. Whenever you apply for a loan, lenders ask detailed questions about your creditworthiness, which is later recorded on your credit report. Too many tough questions in a short period of time can give the lender the impression of being greedy for credit; hence, you should not apply for loans and credit cards too often as lenders will make tougher investigations against you in a short period of time which will negatively impact your credit score.

Other services provided by Experian

Some of the services Experian offers are:

• Experian makes it easy to access loans and other financial services and prevent fraud.

• Experian makes insurance eligibility checking and claims filing easy.

• Experian also notifies its customers if there is a change in their credit/report.

• Experian also helps protect your identity when shopping online.

Other credit facilities

• TransUnion CIBIL

• CRIF

• Equifax