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Understand My Credit Report
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I. What is a consumer credit report?
▲The consumer credit report is a file that reflects an individual’s credit history, including his/her debts and repayments, compliance with financial contracts and abidance by civil laws.
▲The consumer credit report collates and shows an individual’s up-to-date credit history in a comprehensive, accurate and objective manner. Hence, one’s credit record can also be regarded as his/her personal ‘financial ID’.

II. What is the role that the credit report plays in a bank’s credit granting decision?
The bank uses the consumer credit report only as a form of reference as it makes a credit decision. The bank will typically also take a host of other factors into account as it decides whether to grant credit to a consumer.

III. Information in your credit report
▲Basic information (or demographic information): The individual’s identification information, such as the name, ID type & number and marital status. The chief source for this information is the financial institutions to which you have provided such information in your credit applications.
▲ Credit information: This section contains details of an individual’s credit history in areas such as personal loans, credit cards, mortgage loans, and guarantees, as well as on other credit accounts. This is the core of a credit report.
▲ Public records: This section contains all records on an individual that have arisen in the process of public administration and which may reflect on his/her creditworthiness. These types of records include: civil judgments and court enforcement records, tax arrears records, and records of administrative penalties.

IV. What is referred to as “negative information”?
“Negative information” refers to the following kinds of information that have an adverse impact on your credit status:
▲ Information about your failure to perform contractual obligations in credit activities such as credit transactions, sales on credit, guarantees, leases, insurance, use of credit cards, etc.
▲ “Negative information” also includes records that have arisen in the process of public administration, such any administrative penalties imposed on you, court judgments or rulings on your obligation performance as well as records of judicial enforcement, etc.
V. What is referred to as “overdue” payments?
An overdue payment means that the individual concerned has failed to repay the principal, interest and relevant fees (such as over-limit fee and late repayment fee) in full by the repayment deadline.

VI. How long will negative information remain on a credit report?
The CCRC retains negative information in the consumer credit reporting database for up to 5 years beginning from the date of termination of said misconduct or event. The negative information is deleted after 5 years.

VII. Where are overdue payments reflected in the credit report?
▲ Credit card overdue information is shown in the sub-sections titled “Detailed Information on Credit Card Accounts with Past-Due Payments” and “Detailed Information on Quasi-Credit Card Accounts with Over 60 Days’ Overdraft”.
▲ Information on overdue loan payments can be found in the sub-section titled “Detailed Information on Loan Accounts with Past-Due Payments”.
▲ The overdue information sub-section lists your loan, arrears, and repayment records, etc.

VIII. Information on Asset Disposal and Information on Compensation Made by Guarantor
▲ “Information on Asset Disposal” refers to information on non-performing loans and credit cards under the individual’s name that have been sold on by the individual’s lender(s) to asset management companies.
▲ “Information on Compensation Made by Guarantor” refers to information aon debts repaid by the individual’s guarantor (e.g. a guarantee company or an insurance company) on the debtor’s behalf.
▲ These two types of information are indicators of serious default and will be displayed right at the top of the detailed credit information sub-section.

IX. What does the term “Number of accounts” mean?
▲ The term “Number of accounts” refers to the number of the credit card accounts, home mortgage and other personal loan accounts listed under your name.
▲ The term “Number of accounts” listed does not equal the number of credit cards held by the cardholder. Generally, banks deem a dual-currency credit card (a credit card denominated in both RMB and USD) as two accounts. In this case, your credit report will show the number of credit card accounts as 2.

X. What are the “Number of unsettled accounts” and the “Number of open accounts”?
▲ The term “Number of unsettled accounts” refers to the number of accounts of unsettled home mortgage and other types of loans under your name.
▲ The term “Number of open accounts” refers to the number of credit card accounts that have not been cancelled under your name (including active accounts and those has not been activated yet).

XI. What do the terms “Overdraft balance” and “Limit used” mean?
Both are indicators of how much you owe banks, including both principal and interest. The term “overdraft balance” is used with quasi-credit card accounts while the term “limit used” is used with credit card accounts.

XII. Why should I pay special attention to the “Query Record” section?
▲ For your privacy and information safety, the CCRC records each request for your credit information in detail and displays such information in the section titled “Query Record” in your credit report.
▲ The “Query Record” section has a detailed list of all queries on your credit record, including the identity of the financial institution or individual making the request for information, as well as the reason for the request, in the preceding two years.
▲ Please check if any query has been made without your authorisation.
▲ Please also check that there have been no request made for unauthorised purposes.