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Gita was fairly well settled in her job and ready to buy her first apartment and for serious long term financial commitment it involved. She spent months researching various options and finally found a place she liked. She paid the builder a 20% deposit and soon after, applied for a bank loan to cover the rest of the cost.
To her shock, her housing loan application was turned down by all the banks because her credit score was too low. She had no idea what her credit score was and, in fact, was not even aware she had a credit score since she had not taken any previous loans. She was in a very difficult situation now:
• she had already drained her savings to pay a substantial advance to the builder while,
• going forward, no bank was willing to lend her money to complete the purchase because of her low score.
Gita could have avoided this situation if she had checked her credit report as soon as she even considered investing in an apartment. Her credit report would have alerted her to the warning signals that
a) she had a low credit score
b) she would not qualify for a housing loan
c) never taking a loan in the past was a big contributor to her low score.
She could have used the same time that she spent researching the property market to simultaneously bolster her score to a level where she was loan eligible. That way, by the time she decided on the apartment and applied for the loan, her score would have been adequate. Simply put:
- Time spent to decide on a property – 4 to 8 months
- Time required to improve credit score – 4 to 8 months
Your credit report will give you valuable advance information on the state of your credit health. Use this information to work on any problem areas and get the best possible loan deal for yourself.
Creditmantri.com can get you a free credit report, help you increase your score (if required) before applying for a loan and match you with the right lender.