Five Tips To Improve Your CCRIS Report

CCRIS stands for Central Credit Reference Information System. Simply put, it is your financial health report card that records your credit information from Malaysia financial service providers, for items such as credit card, insurance and loan. The report is available to the individuals themselves as well as financial institutions upon request. Therefore, it gives the loan providers an assessment of your suitability to apply for a loan from them.

Nonetheless, CCRIS is not a blacklist checklist. It is a system created and held by Bank Negara Malaysia for data collecting purposes. Therefore, a CCRIS report does not give a direct credit score or rating or the individual’s credibility or financial situation. It consists of three major information:

Outstanding credit – Information on outstanding amount, limit, payment behavior of housing loans, hire purchase, credit cards, personal loan and overdraft etc.

Special attention account – Account that is put under special monitor by a financial institution, usually an account deemed non-performing loan or under special debt management schedules.

Application for credit – All credit facility applications and approved credit application information made in the past one year.

Although the CCRIS report does not have a rating, it is an important indication to banks when someone is applying for a loan for big ticket items such as property.

The good news is CCRIS only shows repayment records of the last 12 months, after which the oldest data is expunged. If your credit utilization has been high the past 12 months, here are some tips on how to improve your CCRIS report to increase your chance of loan approval.

1. Clear some debts

Always pay-off smaller outstanding debts in full when you notice that your credit utilization has been high. This helps to ease your existing financial obligations hence appears more favorable in the eyes of banks.

2. Have some debts

Don’t be overconfident for loan approval if you have zero credit utilization record in your CCRIS because in most cases, banks would take a step back as you don’t have any visible credit history.

3. Limit your tries

Even if you want to buy a property desperately, do not try applying for a loan for all shortlisted properties as too many loan and credit applications actually hurt your chances of getting the best deals.

4. Maintain a consistent repayment pattern

A consistent repayment pattern could show your credibility and commitment of debts indirectly. Try to develop and maintain a consistent repayment pattern such as to fix a payment date every month.

5. Avoid the bad record

If you have missed some payments, be it by accident or if you have no choice, wait for 12 months from the last late payment record before submitting a new loan application to avoid any bad record in the CCRIS report.

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