mumbai citizens will soon be able to get a free copy once a year of their individual credit history based on which banks decide whether to provide a loan or not the credit information bureau of india cibil will by december put in place an online system for individuals to download their dataat present borrowers have to pay rs 550 to obtain a report from cibil this payment includes rs 100 for a credit information report rs 60 fee for the transunion credit score and a convenience fee of rs 318 the rest go toward taxes the free report will not include the credit score but will enable individuals to get an idea of their credit history submitted by banks they will also be able to raise a dispute if the lender has submitted incorrect information to the bureau speaking to toi satish pillai md and ceo cibil said that credit reports were being used more than ever before besides banks and finance companies who access credit history before extending loans telecom companies allocate limits for postpaid customers based on credit scores insurance companies are also looking at credit scores as there is causality between credit score and claim probability earlier this month cibil became a 77 owned subsidiary of american credit information giant transunion after icici bank and bank of baroda sold their stake in the company we have 500 million records 150 million updates and 75 million enquiries every month said pillai according to him it is cibils credit rating that helps propel the consumer durable business where buyers of mobile phones and other electronics can avail credit immediately in the store given the over 20 growth retail lending business would double in three years and cibil is drawing a road map for new technologyaccording to pillai lenders are using cibil data not just at the loan disbursal stage but they are periodically scouring credit records to find out the credit quality of their existing customer base once they have extended the loan they are checking out borrowers to see if they can extend other loansit is not just private lenders but even public sector banks that are getting into the game said pillai small public sector banks are running checks on their customer base to extend them credit