Lesson 2 of 3 · 5 min
Your report is free — go and read it
RBI makes every bureau hand you one full report a year at no cost — four in all — and the accounts grid inside says far more than the score does.
RBI requires every credit bureau to give you one full credit report, score included, free of charge every calendar year. Four bureaus means four free reports — enough to look yourself up every quarter without paying anyone.
The report behind the score is the part worth reading: every account, every limit, and a month-by-month grid of how late, if ever, each payment ran.
The numbers that matter
- Score range used by the bureaus
- 300 to 900
- Free full reports a year
- 4 — one from each bureau
- Days the bureau and lender have to resolve a dispute
- 30
- Compensation if your complaint drags past 30 days
- ₹100 per day
An RBI rule from 2023 — delay now costs the bureau or lender money.
Put these in order
Put the free-report routine in the order it happens.
- File a free dispute online for anything that looks wrong
- Read the accounts grid and the enquiries section closely
- Confirm your identity with PAN and an OTP
- Find its free annual credit report page
- Pick one of the four bureaus
| Status | What it means | How lenders read it |
|---|---|---|
| Closed | Repaid in full and shut properly | The healthy ending — this is what builds a score |
| Settled | The lender accepted less than the full amount and stopped chasing the rest | A lasting stain — it says the full debt was not repaid, and it lingers on the report for years |
| Written-off | The lender gave up on collecting | The heaviest mark of the three — expect refusals until it is resolved |
Match them up
Five words your report uses
Pick a term, then pick what it actually means.
Pick a term on the left.
I paid it off. Why does the report still look bad?
KabirTara
Kabirasking
The lender offered to close the account if I paid part of what was owed. I paid, they stopped calling, it was over. Why is my report still holding it against me?
Taraexplaining
Because the report is not recording that you finished. It is recording how you finished. 'Settled' means the lender took less than it was owed and gave up on the rest.
Kabirasking
But they agreed to it. They suggested it.
Taraexplaining
They did, and for them it was a fair trade — some money beats none. It is still a smaller repayment than the contract asked for, and that is the fact the next lender reads.
Kabirasking
So one word on a page outweighs the money I actually handed over?
Taraexplaining
The word is the summary of the money. Pay the remaining amount in full later and you can ask the lender to re-report the account as closed — the bureau shows what the lender sends it, nothing more.
Quick check
The accounts grid on a report shows '000, 000, 030, 060' for the last four months. What is it saying?
Check yourself
1 / 3
Kabir asks
How many full credit reports are you owed free each year, and by whom?
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