Mobile bill payment history to reflect credit worthiness (India)

Indian credit information bureau, Cibil, is planning to include an individual’s mobile and telephone bill payment history, when calculating their credit worthiness. According to a report by ET, Cibil has already begun working with Vodafone’s post-paid subscribers and is discussing a similar project with Bharti Airtel.

Arun Thukral, managing director, Cibil has said that their aim is to eventually link the telecom utility payment history to the banking and financial records of customers and make it available as a Cibil record to banks and other financial institutions. He added that the database can also be used by a telecom service provider when issuing a post-paid number to an individual. It will lower delinquencies and improve their quality of customers.

The implementation of this service may add to the list of verifications by a bank or financial institution to allow or deny a home or car loan. Further, even future credit cards and post-paid connections may be tougher for a customer with a poor credit rating.