How to get your CIBIL Credit Report Corrected for Wrong Information

Shekhar had approached ABC Bank for a housing loan but his application got rejected due to bad credit score. This surprised him since he has never delayed his credit card payments or installments on the car loan.

While he was still baffled by this rejection, he approached me to know the probable reasons. I guided him to the CIBIL website from where he could download his free credit report. It was simple after that. He found out the reason for his low credit score. One credit card was appearing in his credit report which showed long outstanding dues but did not belong to him.

“I have never had any credit card from XYZ Bank. How do I approach them to correct this?” Shekhar was very concerned now to get this wrong entry rectified.

“Shekhar, that’s why it is very important to regularly monitor your credit report. Had you seen it earlier, we could have got it corrected by now. But anyway, it’s better late than never. The procedure to get such discrepancies corrected is quite simple. ”

Here is how the CIBIL credit report can be corrected:

Submit the Online Dispute Form

CIBIL pools the information received from various lenders and processes it to calculate your credit score. It also acknowledges that there might be certain information appearing inadvertently which can reflect on your credit report and also affect your credit score. So, it has provided an online dispute form to help you submit any information you wish to get corrected or regarding which you have any dispute like outstanding payments for the credit card you have already paid.

Marking of a Section as Disputed in Credit Report

Upon the successful filing of the online dispute form, CIBIL marks the concerned section as ‘under dispute’ in your credit report. So, your prospective lender will not consider such disputed information while appraising your credit history.

Verification of the Disputed Information by the Source Lender

Once the dispute is filed with CIBIL, it takes forward the dispute with the bank which had provided such information. It may take approximately 30 days to resolve a dispute, subject to the time taken by the bank to respond. Apart from this, CIBIL sends periodical reminders to the banks till the banks respond about the disputed information. Once the concerned Bank gives its clarification for the dispute request, CIBIL updates the changes and communicate the dispute status via email.

What if the Bank Does Not Accept Its Mistake?

One can choose to contact the concerned bank directly and also go through Banking Grievance Redressal Mechanism to get the issue resolved.

Alternatively, one can initiate a dispute request again to take up the case with the bank again through CIBIL. However, it must be noted that CIBIL cannot make any changes to the credit report without the confirmation of the respective bank.

“This is so simple. Let me get my Credit Report corrected now. I will file the online dispute right away, once we are done with tea.” Shekhar seemed very relieved now.

Simardeep Singh is a Chartered Accountant based in Delhi. He loves sharing his knowledge about personal finance and investment. He blogs regularly at  www.simardeep.com.