Why it is in your interest to know your credit score

When you apply for credit cards, home loans, or personal loans, the banks will be contacting credit report agencies like CTOS to learn about your credit history.

A credit history is a record of a consumer’s ability to repay debts and demonstrated responsibility in repaying debts.

Your credit history determines your level of creditworthiness and trustworthiness in the eyes of the lenders.

What’s included in a credit report?

A consumer's credit history consists of information such as: number and types of credit accounts, how long each account has been open, amounts owed, amount of available credit used whether bills are paid on time, and number of recent credit inquiries.

It also contains information regarding whether the consumer has any bankruptcies, liens, judgments or collections.

This information is all contained on a consumer's credit report.

The banks/lenders would then evaluate these information to decide whether it is feasible to lend you money, and have a high degree of chance of you paying back the money you’ve borrowed.

That is why, if you know your own credit score, this would enable you to make better decision on making future financial commitments.

How can you get your credit report?

CTOS has a self-check product called the MyCTOS Score Report. To get your credit report, simply choose either one of these available channels, it is convenient. Here are the steps:

1. Sign-up online at www.ctoscredit.com.my

2. Download CTOS mobile app

3. Walk-in to any CTOS customer service branches nationwide https://www.ctoscredit.com.my/contact-us/

How you can make use of this report is to know where you stand on the credit rating scale. If you are ranked high, then you can leverage yourself (i.e. take on more loans to get more assets) or if you are ranked low, then you can work in specifics on improving your credit score.

Here’s my question to you: Do you let other people know about your credit score? More importantly, do you let your spouse know your own score?

The case for letting your spouse know your own score is still dicey.

A household with a good CTOS score would mean that the family can build more useful financial means.

If you are thinking about purchasing a house or a car, your CTOS score plays a determinant role in the interest rate that you will eventually be paying, for the money you are borrowing from the banks.

CTOS presently is running a social experiment on couples revealing each other’s credit scores. The idea is to reveal to the spouses what their obligations and duties are.

The aim of the social experiment is to see if the couples know what their CTOS scores are, why it is important and more crucially they understand their credit health and financial limitations in attaining their goals.

Another underlying message of the social experiment is that, couples should be transparent and honest with each other in building a household.

Should credit score be the last thing a couple talks about in a relationship?

It remains to be seen if revealing individual’s credit score to spouses will become a norm in the Asian setting.

Couples tend to be more private with regards to their finances in this part of the world in comparison to the Western countries.

This campaign by CTOS is a bold move to culturally challenge what is considered as ‘taboo’ and it is commendable.

Do you know your personal credit score? Would you like to know your spouse’s CTOS score? Would you reveal your own CTOS score to your spouse?

Leave us a comment and tell us what do you think.