Five Common Myths Indians Believe About Credit Scores

Everyone has “heard something” about CIBIL

Family, colleagues, YouTube, Telegram groups – everyone has a strong opinion about credit scores.

The problem is: half of it is wrong or half-true.

Let’s clean up five of the most common myths.

Myth 1 – “Checking my score will reduce it”

What people think:

“If I check my CIBIL score often, it will keep going down.”

What really happens:

When you check your own score through an app or bureau, it’s usually a soft enquiry. Soft enquiries do not hurt your score.

What can impact scores is too many hard enquiries – when lenders pull your report for actual loan applications.

Myth 2 – “No loans = excellent score”

If you’ve never taken credit, you may have no score or a very thin history.

Many lenders prefer some track record (even a small, well-handled card or loan) over a completely blank file, because they don’t know how you behave with EMIs.

Myth 3 – “One missed EMI ruins everything forever”

A single missed payment can hurt, especially if recent and on a big loan or card.

But scores are not permanent punishments. If you come back on track and stay steady for 6–12 months, the impact softens.

What hurts more is repeated late payments or ignoring the issue completely.

Myth 4 – “Closing my credit cards improves my score”

Closing a card may help you control spending.

But from a score point of view, you might:

·         reduce your total limit, and

·         increase your utilisation on remaining cards.

For some people, that can actually pull scores down in the short term.

Myth 5 – “Agents or ‘score doctors’ can fix everything quickly”

No one can legally erase accurate negative history from your report.

They may help with disputes if something is wrong, but:

·         if you genuinely paid late,

·         if a loan was written off or settled,

it will show for some time. Be very careful of anyone promising guaranteed, fast “score repair”.

What this means for you

If you build your financial decisions on half-truths, you can end up:

·         closing the wrong accounts,

·         avoiding useful products,

·         or ignoring real problems.

Better to know the basics and then take calm steps.

What you can actually do

·         Check your score periodically without fear.

·         Focus on behaviour, not hacks: on-time EMIs, reasonable usage, fewer unnecessary loans.

·         Avoid “shortcut” schemes and agents promising miracles.

·         If confused, talk to your bank or an unbiased professional, not just social media.

Credit scores are already complicated. Myths make them worse.

Once you stop believing the scary stories, you can focus on the few things that actually matter – and most of those are in your control.