Indian finance market is flooding with fintechs which are interested in lending money. From a refrigerator to an apartment, you can get a loan for every other purchase you make. Credit cards are also a popular way of making purchases, be it online or instore. However, most of us are unaware of the aspect of managing credits and credit scores.

What is Credit Score?

Financial institutions assess your creditworthiness before giving a loan to you. This is done by finding your credit score. The Credit Information Bureau Ltd, CIBIL, is the oldest agency in India, which keeps a track of your credit information and gives you a credit score. Financial institutions refer to this score, and also various other factors like your age, salary and other personal details to determine your creditworthiness. Other agencies which maintain credit ratings are Experian and Crif Highmark.

How to Manage Credit Score?

Timely payment of EMI of your loans is the most important requirement for having a healthy credit score. Paying credit card bills in full and on time, not having too many personal loans, refraining from overleveraging etc are other factors which influence your credit score positively.

Apps to Manage Credit Score

Though it appears to be tough to understand credit scores and maintain a healthy credit score, you need not worry as there are helping hands. Today, there are many apps to manage your credit score. They give timely information and advice to help you build and maintain a good score.

Here are a few popular apps to manage your credit score.

1. IndiaLends: In 2016, IndiaLends launched the country’s first credit score and analytics app. This app helps you get your credit score for free. It also helps you manage multiple credit accounts and is one of the effective apps to manage your credit score. IndiaLends Credit Score app is available for both Android and iOS phones.
2. CIBIL Score: This app calculates your CIBIL score and gives you a free report. It also provides tips from various popular websites, to help you maintain a good credit score.
3. CreditMantri: According to the app’s creators, CreditMantri provides ‘much more than credit scores’. CreditMantri helps you see where you stand, know your credit quotient, discover loans matching your needs and get a personalised action plan. While creditmantri.com website has served to more than a million customers, its app hopes to help even more Indians in understanding the lending market. The app is available on Google Play store.
4. PaisaBazaar: PaisaBazaar.com is a popular web marketplace for curating loans and cards. It recently launched an app which helps you with your lending needs and also gives you instant credit reports for free. This app is also designed to give you monthly updates of your credit reports. PaisaBazaar app is available on both Google Play store and App Store.
5. TrustScore: TrustScore is an app created by technology startup CreditVidya. This app determines your creditworthiness depending on your social media presence. “TrustScore will be a financial inclusion point for new-to-credit and thin-file customers”, Rajiv Raj, the other co-founder and director of CreditVidya, told ET Money. This app is available for Android Phones.
6. Mint: Mint is a popular iPhone app which helps you keep a track of your finances. This app also provides you, your credit score analysis. It gives tips to improve your credit score and also gives you credit alerts whenever Equifax receives new credit information from creditors. Mint app is also available in Android and Windows versions.
7. CreditSmart: CreditSmart app calculates your credit score with its inbuilt algorithms. Apart from daily updates, CreditSmart app also provides news, tips, and credit card reviews.

Smart Tips: CIBIL score ranges between 300 – 900. A score of 0 or -1 shows that you have not taken any loans till now. A score which is in between 300 to 550 is a very poor score. Financial institutions will not encourage lending to such individuals. A score above 550 shows that you can be trusted with loans, and the creditworthiness increases as the score increases.

To improve credit scores, you need to make payments of all your loans and bills in time, and you need to avoid taking too much credit. It is also important that you check your CIBIL credit report and credit score regularly. These good practices clubbed with apps to manage your credit score will definitely help you maintain a good credit score.