Credit score
The four bureaus, side by side
India has four RBI-registered credit bureaus. They are not competing opinions on your creditworthiness — they are separate warehouses, all scoring 300–900, and your lender decides which one it reads.
| TransUnion CIBIL | Experian | Equifax | CRIF High Mark | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RBI registration | 5 March 2012 | 17 February 2010 | 26 March 2010 | 25 November 2010 |
| Legal entity | TransUnion CIBIL Limited | Experian Credit Information Company of India Private Limited | Equifax Credit Information Services Private Limited | CRIF Credit Information Services Private Limited (formerly CRIF High Mark Credit Information Services Private Limited) |
| Score range | 300–900 | 300–900 | 300–900 | 300–900 |
| Why you'd see it | India's oldest bureau brand, and the one most lenders name first. | A full-service bureau that publishes a six-input factor list and a three-level grievance ladder. | The bureau with the longest-standing Indian registration, and a formal free-report request route. | The most explicit bureau about dispute mechanics — and about your route to the Ombudsman. |
| Free report (one per year) | Free annual report + score | Free annual report + score | Free annual report + score | Free annual report + score |
| Published escalation ladder | First-level support only | 3 levels published | First-level support only | 3 levels published |
| Bureau page | TransUnion CIBIL page → | Experian page → | Equifax page → | CRIF High Mark page → |
Registration data is from RBI's register of certificate-holding CICs; everything else is each bureau's own published material. No bureau is ranked, and no score comparison is offered.
Which page do you need?
The hub is organised by what you are trying to do.
“I want to understand the number”
What a credit score is — the report behind it and the 300–900 scale.
“I want my free report”
How the one-free-full-report-per-bureau-per-year entitlement works.
“Something on my report is wrong”
The dispute process, the 30-day rule and the ₹100-per-day compensation.
“Someone checked my file — I don't know who”
Enquiries, the RBI-mandated alerts, and unauthorised checks.
“I think someone is using my identity”
The fraud playbook: lender, bureau, and the government channels.
“I want to raise my score”
What bureau guidance supports, and realistic timelines.
Common questions
The questions the comparison always raises.
Which credit bureau should I check?
All four, once each during the calendar year — you cannot know which bureau a given lender will pull, and each bureau holds data reported to it on its own cycle, so the reports can differ. The free report is an entitlement at every one of them.
Why do my scores differ between bureaus?
Because they hold different data snapshots. Lenders report to each bureau on its own schedule, and bureaus update on their own schedules too, so a loan closed this month can still be open at one bureau and closed at another.
Is one bureau more widely used than the others?
Lenders choose by product and internal policy, and many pull more than one. CIBIL is the name most borrowers meet first, but a rejection can come from any bureau's data, so check them all rather than treating one as canonical.
Do all four give a free report every year?
Yes — the RBI rule applies to every registered bureau: one free full credit report including the credit score, once in each calendar year (January–December), electronically on request and after authentication, with the link prominent on the bureau's own home page.
Go deeper
Sources
Reviewed 23 Sept 2026. Rules change — the RBI directions and each bureau's own pages are the authority, and this hub links straight to them.
- RBI — Master Direction – Reserve Bank of India (Credit Information Reporting) Directions, 2025 (6 Jan 2025)300–900 calibration across CICs, the free full credit report (once a year), the 30-day correction rule and ₹100/day compensation, access alerts, dispute flags on the CIR, and the ban on reporting declined applications.
- RBI — list of Credit Information Companies registered under the CICRAThe four registered bureaus, their legal names and corporate identities.
- TransUnion CIBIL — “All You Need To Know About Your CIBIL Score And How It Is Calculated”CIBIL's score range, its four key factors (payment history, credit mix, multiple enquiries, high credit utilisation), its improvement tips and the 79%-above-750 figure.
- Experian India — Consumer Services (score range, factors, grievance levels)Experian India's 300–900 range, its factor list, its unauthorised-enquiry guidance and its Level 1/2/3 grievance escalation contacts.
- CRIF High Mark — Raise a Credit Report DisputeCRIF's raise-a-query flow, its service-request ticket, its 30-day resolution commitment and its Level 1/2/3 escalation contacts.
- Equifax India — Free Credit Report (support)Equifax India's own route to the free report and how it is requested.
Where this hub is deliberately careful
- Score-reading bands ("700+ is good"). The RBI fixes the 300–900 scale but not what counts as a good score — lenders set their own cut-offs, and they differ by product. Where we quote a band it is the bureau's own wording (CRIF says above 700 is generally considered good; CIBIL notes 79% of loans are sanctioned above 750), not a regulator's threshold.
- Bureau pages that still cite the older Ombudsman scheme. Some bureau dispute pages still name the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021. That scheme was replaced by RB-IOS 2026 with effect from 1 July 2026; we describe the 2026 scheme and note the lag rather than repeat the stale name.
- Exact factor weightings. No bureau publishes the weights behind its score. CIBIL describes four “key factors” and Experian lists six inputs, but neither publishes percentages, so this hub never prints one.