The ‘other factors affecting your creditworthiness

If you think your creditworthiness is determined by CIBIL score alone, think again. Apart from the CIBIL score that banks and NBFC take into account for lending purpose, alternate credit scoring models have come up of late that are factored in for determining the creditworthiness of an individual. These models are more comprehensive and inclusive as compared to the traditional methods adopted by the banks and financial institutions.

Nowadays, fintech companies collect non-traditional data from diverse sources to assess the spending and credit history of the individuals. Some of these sources of data include mobile phone usage patterns, payment and transactions records received on the mobile phone number, payment history of the utility bills and EMIs, etc. These scoring methods access and utilise the data generated from the individual’s digital activity pertaining to financial transactions to determine a person’s creditworthiness or otherwise.

These platforms also access the social media usage of the individual to determine the financial profile of the person. Some of the social media being deployed for such data collection include, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., which provide digital lenders an accurate credit profile of the prospective borrowers. These sites provide the fintech companies crucial insights into the personality, behaviourial attributes and social network of the borrowers.

Hence, when you use your social media account, it would be prudent that you post such information that will not be inimical to your credit profile.