Knowing your credit score is important to see how good you are in the eyes of a credit lender. In this article, I’ll explain what is a credit score report, why you should care in the first place and how you can get them online for free.
I’ve requested for my credit score reports from CCRIS & CTOS, and in this article, I will share with you my experience:
What is a Credit Score Report & Why Should You Care?
A credit score report shows how good you are at paying back all of your loans & bills on time. When you want to apply for a loan or credit somewhere, the lender will do a background check to see if you are credit-worthy (bank lingo for someone that manages their money well).
Lenders will estimate how risky you are as a borrower based on your credit score report. If your score is high, it reassures the lender that you’ll most likely pay back the money they lent to you on time, and in contrast, if your score is low, it shows that you have a tendency to skip payments and a hassle for the lender to get paid.
Someone with a low credit score might still get a bank loan, but the bank will charge a higher interest to accommodate the risk that they’re taking of not getting paid on time.
Because of that, it’s important for each of us to know our credit score report at least once a year to make sure that we are always credit-worthy & to see if there are any signs of identity theft (someone can steal your ID to apply for stuff without your consent).
How Can You Check Your Credit Score For Free?
In Malaysia, there are 2 ways you can get your credit report score:
Here are the main differences between the 2 without getting too technical:
Most lenders will check both of the reports above to size you up as a borrower. So I checked my credit report score on both CCRIS & CTOS to see what’s the difference.
It would be best to check your credit score on both of these platforms. Let’s start with CCRIS from Bank Negara:
How to Check CCRIS With Bank Negara
Go to Bank Negara’s website and follow their instructions to register as a user. The first order of business is to download their form and start filling it up:
Submit the form as instructed and wait for bnm to email back your score. This can take a few days.
Once you get your CCRIS score, you want to take a look at the installment repayment table. Generally, you want most of the numbers to be ‘0’. If there’s any number besides 0, it will be marked red, indicating that you’ve been late on a payment:
Get your CCRIS score report here.
How to Check Your CTOS Score
Unlike CCRIS, checking your credit score with CTOS is much simpler and faster. All you have to do is register a free account with CTOS here & follow their instructions.
You want your credit score to be above ‘Good’ to be considered a good paymaster, and this is visible in the free version of CTOS:
If you clicked on the ‘View last report’ button, you’ll get a bit more detail of your info, including if you have any records setting up a business. Here they managed to capture both of the businesses that I’ve registered before:
Nice! The free version is enough for most people to have a rough idea where they are credit-wise. Ready to check your credit score? Click here.
Originally published at https://balkonihijau.com.
