Do you hear frequent references to Credit Bureau, Credit Report and Credit Score lately?
At Standard Chartered, we’re committed to providing you with the right financial tips and tools. Through this edition of our educational series, “Basics of Banking”, we are going to share why your Credit Bureau rating matters and how to score higher.
Let’s begin by understanding more about the Credit Bureau in UAE.
UAE’s Credit Bureau
Banks, financial and non-financial institutions rely on Credit Bureau services to take informed decisions regarding their clients. In the UAE, Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB) is a company owned by the Federal government mandated with aggregating and analysing credit information collected from financial and non-financial institutions. This data is used to produce Credit Reports and calculate Credit Scores for individuals and organizations.
What is a Credit Report?
A Credit Report produced by AECB contains your personal details, loan and credit information, and payment history over the last 5 years. It includes bounced cheque details and court-ordered payments, if any, as well as utilities and telecom bill payments and balances.
What is a Credit Score?
AECB’s Credit Score is a three-digit number ranging between 300 and 900 that estimates your creditworthiness. It predicts the likelihood of you missing payments in the next 12 months. The higher this number, the lower the risk factor.
How are Credit Bureau reports and scores used?
Your Credit Report will aid institutions to assess your long term financial standing, credit and payment history. It arms them with information required to evaluate your credit or service applications, assess the associated risk and decide on approval or rejection of applications you file as their client or partner.
Your Credit Score predicts your creditworthiness and the level of risk related to settling payments. Your score is taken into account for loan and card applications.
Keeping your Credit Report & Score in good shape
Keeping your finances in order is the first step towards maintaining a good credit rating. Improving or even maintaining it requires being consistent in managing your finances. Here are some pointers:
• Make your monthly payments and your debt payments on schedule, on or before the due date
• Avoid missing a single payment or being late
• Never let your cheque bounce
• Reduce the amount of outstanding debt
• It is advisable to check your credit report and score occasionally. Not only does it help you work towards bettering them, you may also catch errors that need to be rectified. You may register and pay at AECB’s website https://aecb.gov.ae/ to access your report and score.
• To know more or read related topics, visit https://www.sc.com/ae/stories/basics-of-banking
