Mortgage credit history

Recommendation points

• Structure of credit histories
• Knowledge is power
• Announce the entire list, please …
• Credit history correction
• Summary

As O. Lagutkin, the general director of BKI “Equifax” explains, it is possible to open a credit history on the client’s own initiative and without a valid loan. To do this, it is enough to have a loan repaid in the past and apply to the bank with a written application with a request to inform the BCH about the successfully repaid loan. According to Lagutkin, “usually such appeals are recorded as preparation of the borrower for new large loans, and more recently, much more often.”.

Structure of credit histories

The typical content of the credit history is regulated by the Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 218, and must include:

1. Title part– identification information about the borrower, his full name, TIN, passport data, place of residence and registration, contact information
2. Main part– information about the loan (amount, type of loan, repayment period, all changes and additions to the loan agreement). It also contains information about the borrower, the establishment of which was initiated by the bank itself.
3. Closed part– information about the bank that issued the loan, as well as about other organizations that have requested this credit history (other banks, law enforcement agencies, etc.)

The maximum period for transferring a credit history from a bank to a BCH is 10 days from the date of signing the loan agreement Banks are obliged to inform the bureau of all loan delinquencies, even if the payment is overdue by only one day!

In the public consciousness of borrowers, there is a persistent stereotype regarding the sign of equality between a credit history and a set of loan agreements. Strictly speaking, this is not the case. The credit history may also include bank cards with a line of credit for bank funds (overdraft). According to the head of the credit department of “Flexinvest Bank” M. Kovalev, “Legally it is possible to speak about the conclusion of a credit agreement with the bank for the amount of the card limit, and the creditor bank has the right to send information on this card to the BCH.” The distribution of such credit cards, practiced by some banks, may be tantamount to the “gifts of the Danes” near Troy – such a “gift” can spoil the credit history.

Here is how the head of the mortgage department of RELIGHT-Real Estate I. Kazhikina comments on such marketing moves: “When you receive a credit card you do not need, you must refuse it, and, most likely, in writing, and return the card back to the bank. For some banks, you become a borrower without even activating your credit card, and the discarded piece of plastic after a while will make you spend a lot of effort, time and nerves to rehabilitate your own credit history. ” A situation is possible when the client needs a card, but the overdraft funds on it are not. M. Kovalev (“Flexinvest Bank”), in this case, recommends “to close the credit line at the bank, that is, to transfer the bank card to the debit category”.

If your bank cooperates with several bureaus, then there will be several credit histories, and they will differ in the amount of information they contain. As S. Ivanova explains, deputy. Chairman of the Board of CB Agropromcredit: “at the present time CCCI works with all 32 accredited CHBs, and for completeness of your own credit picture, it is advisable to collect information on all bureaus where information about your loans may be available”.

Knowledge is power

Credit history is one of the main factors for a bank in determining the feasibility of issuing a loan, and debt “spots” on it can become a reason for refusal – even if other parameters of the borrower fully comply with the banking requirements! The most offensive thing is that a “bad” credit history can become both by mistake and as a result of fraud, or by some combination of both (the same bank cards). Until now, Russians have been characterized by a conniving (if not stronger!) Attitude to their own credit history, unthinkable in the West. Until now, the majority of those who applied to the BKI are people with refusal from the bank, in convulsive attempts to find answers to the eternal Russian questions “Who is to blame?” and “What to do?”

According to A. Vikulin (NBKI), financial literacy, even among relatively socially prosperous segments of the population, is increasing slowly: does not exceed 25%. Most of the disciplined borrowers who do not expect force majeure and who monitor the correctness of the transfer of information by the bank are those who are planning several large loans. ” O. Lagutkin (BCI “Equifax”) adds to this category of borrowers who plan to apply for a loan in a foreign bank: “they need confirmation of the” purity “of their credit history or the absence of active loans in Russia

Announce the entire list, please …

The law provides for an unlimited number of acquaintances with one’s own credit history, however, this acquaintance can be free only once a year. The main methods of this personal financial reporting monitoring exercise are as follows:

1. Contacting the CCCI through its website, for which you need to know your own unique code of the subject of credit histories, which can be obtained when registering a loan product. “Once assigned, such a code can also be used when obtaining new loans, it identifies the borrower in full,” says A. Stepanenko, head of the department for servicing individuals at ZAO Raiffeisenbank. By law, a response from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation should follow the next day after the request and completely free of charge.
2. Request (personal) directly to the bank that issued the loan. The method is unacceptable with a repaid loan, the bank’s inoperability, and even in the absence of these circumstances, it is fraught with many bureaucratic delays..
3. Contact the BCH, and it is more logical to contact the largest one – cooperating with the maximum number of banks. According to the majority of experts, the largest credit bureaus in Russia at the end of 2010 were NBCH, InfoCredit, Equifax, and Experian. These requests are paid (on average, about 500 rubles), they can be carried out in person, or through a notarized postal request or an appeal by telegraph certified by the responsible officer of the Russian Post. The response time from the bureau is maximum 10 days.
4. A quick way to get a report on the current credit history is to contact the authorized organizations of the BCH (usually banks and credit brokers). “For the same 400 – 500 rubles, a request is filled out in the office of the organization, and the report is submitted within half an hour, and it is executed legally flawlessly and is available for use in court,” says A. Vikulin. Since 2010, the NBCH led by him has introduced into the range of its services the provision of quarterly reports on credit histories for 1000 rubles per year (plus notary fees and postage, if necessary).

Familiarization with your own credit history will allow you not only to find out what debt obligations you have, but also to find out the schedules of their repayment and control, albeit unlikely, but possible errors in credit reporting.

Credit history correction

It is necessary to immediately clarify the issue of adjustments – the credit history cannot be corrected, it can only really be improved. The existing tales about the complete rehabilitation of credit history by means of “blat” or “… well, you know how it’s done …” are nothing more than urban legends. The very structure of threefold duplication of information (bank, BKI, CCCI) makes the possibility of falsifying documents in three organizations that are not particularly related to each other absolutely fantastic..

No matter how regrettable it may be, a “tarnished” credit history is like a barrel of honey with an unappetizing fly in the ointment (albeit a small one!).

And the borrower only has to try to increase the amount of “honey” in his “debt barrel” by constantly conscientious repayment of debt obligations, trying to reduce the percentage of “tar” inaccuracy or delay to invisible homeopathic doses …

Nevertheless, some practical advice can still be given, and they will concern, first of all, the relationship with the bank to obtain a new loan, albeit not with the best credit history:

1. Convincing arguments for bankers about insurmountable difficulties in repaying a loan will not be unfounded statements, but documented data (certificates of illness, orders to dismiss and delay salaries by the employer, etc.)
2. Testimonies of his “entry into the path of a righteous payer” – various and timely payments, not only to the bank, but also for utilities, writ of execution, other loans, etc. As S. Aldanov, director of the analytical department of MBKI, explains, banks “pay attention to the borrower’s credit behavior over the past two years. And although no credit institution will tell you about its disregard for the older behavior of the client, in fact, the good faith in the last 24 months can become the basis for satisfying a loan request and a guilty client in the past..
3. Earn money legally and not in “envelopes”! No one is immune from mistakes, but the documented growth of your own income, combined with an open admission of past mistakes, is a significant plus to your image as a borrower. As S. Ivanova (KB Agropromcredit) adds, “an additional argument for a favorable attitude to the loan request will be opening our deposit accounts at least six months before the request – even in the case of past problems with the borrower. This practice is typical for other commercial banks as well “.

Summary

The system of Russian credit bureaus is only 6 years old. If we take into account the crisis phenomena of 2008-2009 in the economy in general and in real estate in particular, then BCHs are taking their first steps in relation to large volumes of mortgage loans, albeit along the already “beaten” pre-crisis path. Today, almost every Russian who applies for a loan to a bank has a credit history. In the coming years, revolutionary changes in attitudes towards credit histories are likely – primarily in the mass consciousness.

Even if not as globally as in prosperous Western countries (according to a November 2010 survey by the Financial Times, 56% of UK taxpayers consider credit history to be more important than a regular passport!), But a dismissive attitude towards CRI data will surely become a thing of the past. How ready the existing bureaus will be for this is a debatable question. It goes without saying that their role in the country’s financial system as carriers of such important credit information will increase significantly in the coming years..

It is quite probable that in the coming years the largest credit card companies (primarily Moscow ones) will try to obtain the status of all-Russian repositories of credit histories. Well, “who owns the information owns the world.” In this case, the world of big money!