A few taps can get you a personal loan. But if you end up with several loans, missed EMIs and a falling credit score, figuring out what went wrong—and what to fix first—can be much harder. That is creating a market for paid credit-health services that promise to do more than simply show borrowers their credit score.
The RBI has flagged rising stress among borrowers with unsecured loans from multiple lenders, along with increasing delinquencies in fintech-originated small-ticket loans.
As missed EMIs drag down credit scores and trigger recovery calls, a growing number of borrowers are turning to services that help them understand and improve their credit health. These platforms monitor credit profiles, explain what is hurting scores and suggest what borrowers can do next. Some also offer alerts for unfamiliar accounts or enquiries, score simulators and personalized guidance.
Growing awareness
The growth of credit-advice platforms is being driven by greater awareness of credit scores, the expansion of digital lending to first-time borrowers and consumers' increasing willingness to pay for digital financial guidance, said Parijat Garg, a digital lending consultant and former senior vice-president at CRIF High Mark.
India has four credit bureaus—TransUnion CIBIL, Experian, Equifax and CRIF High Mark. Consumers can obtain one free complete credit report from each bureau every calendar year. Experts suggest checking credit reports periodically, potentially once every quarter by staggering reports across bureaus.
These reports provide data, not advice. They show the credit score, loans and credit cards, whether an account is secured or unsecured, and its status—active, closed, written off or settled. They also show which lenders have accessed the report, when and for what purpose.
Paid plans from platforms such as BankBazaar, GoodScore and OneScore attempt to fill the advice gap by explaining what may have caused a change in the score and what the borrower could do next.
“People can get credit scores or credit reports through a lot of apps, or even directly from credit bureaus,” Garg said. “But what you get there is primarily a reflection of the score and not everybody is comfortable reading the report or making an interpretation out of it.”
Consider a borrower with a personal loan, credit card and two-wheeler loan who has fallen behind on one or two payments. A bureau report may show that an account is past due and that the credit score has fallen. It does not necessarily tell the borrower which problem to address first or how different parts of the credit profile are affecting the score.
This is where paid services seek to add value.
GoodScore, for instance, analyses payment patterns, utilization, defaults, credit mix and enquiries and provides a step-by-step plan. Its plan costs about ₹99 a month.
BankBazaar launched its CreditStrong offering in 2021. It charges ₹1 for the first month and ₹99 a month thereafter. Chief executive Adhil Shetty said the company is seeing strong sign-ups, particularly from non-metro and semi-urban areas, where buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) brought many first-time borrowers into the credit system without them fully understanding how borrowing and repayment behaviour could affect their scores.
Shetty said many such users now have scores below 650 and find it difficult to access credit. Credit-improvement services are aimed at such borrowers.
Users may also be able to simulate the impact of, say, missing a car-loan EMI. Such projections are only estimates, however, because the effect depends on factors including the borrower’s credit history, the extent of the delay and how the lender reports it.
What about bureau subscriptions?
Credit bureaus themselves also offer paid subscription plans. These can allow consumers to refresh their credit reports and scores more frequently, receive alerts about changes to their credit profile and, in some cases, access score-simulation tools.
The question, therefore, is whether consumers should pay a bureau simply for more frequent access to their data or pay a platform that also interprets that data.
Garg gave the example of a consumer paying around ₹1,500 a year for a CIBIL subscription that involves daily score refreshes, real-time alerts, an interactive score simulator and a trend tool that graphs historical score movements. A credit-advice platform may charge a similar amount but also provide recommendations based on the report, which could make it more attractive to some consumers.
But that does not mean everyone needs a paid plan. If your credit profile is poor, such platforms may help. Otherwise, regular credit reports from the bureaus could be enough.
Subhankar Mishra, head of business strategy at Equifax India, suggested that consumers do not necessarily need to monitor their scores every month.
“A consumer can stagger these reports and check one bureau every quarter. Someone with a few long-term loans and a reliable repayment record may not need to monitor their score every month,” he said.
Free alternatives
Consumers do not necessarily need to pay for credit advice. Apart from the annual free report available from each bureau, several UPI apps and credit platforms offer free versions of their credit-monitoring services, although some advisory features may be restricted.
FREED recently launched a free “EMI Score”, which looks at a borrower’s ability to manage existing EMIs. It considers factors such as income, savings, existing loans, monthly EMI obligations and repayment behaviour.
The idea is to help borrowers understand whether their current debt burden is manageable and avoid taking on more debt when they are already under financial stress, said Ritesh Srivastava, founder and CEO, FREED. Loans that a borrower cannot comfortably repay can eventually lead to missed EMIs and a lower credit score.
Srivastava said consumers typically seek to improve their credit scores only after financial stress has already surfaced. At that stage, there are few shortcuts: borrowers need to regularize overdue payments, reduce financial strain and avoid taking on obligations they cannot sustainably afford.
OneScore also offers credit-monitoring and advisory features for free. Its “find out why” feature helps users understand changes in their score.
Borrowers should also consider the business model before paying for these services. Many credit-monitoring platforms are loan and credit-card marketplaces, so an improved credit score can become an opportunity to cross-sell products from partner lenders.
Consumers can also get basic credit guidance from AI tools and other free online resources. It is therefore worth asking what exactly you are paying for and whether the service provides meaningful interpretation.
Who should pay?
Paid credit-monitoring and improvement plans may make sense for borrowers facing specific problems that free tools cannot easily address.
These could include consumers who have multiple loans and credit cards and want help prioritizing repayments; have missed payments and need a structured plan to rebuild their credit profile; want alerts for unfamiliar accounts or enquiries; are dealing with a disputed or potentially fraudulent account; or are first-time borrowers looking for structured guidance on building a credit history.
Fraud is another reason to monitor your credit report. A loan or credit enquiry you don't recognise could be a sign of fraud or an error and, if an unauthorized loan is not repaid, it could lower your credit score. Monitoring services can alert you to such changes early.
But an alert alone will not remove the loan or correct your score. You still need to raise a dispute with the credit bureau and the lender.
Human-led credit-repair services can go a step further by helping consumers file disputes and follow up with lenders and credit bureaus. For borrowers with a clean credit history, however, paying for constant monitoring may be unnecessary. Periodically checking free credit reports may be sufficient.
Ultimately, the value of paid credit services depends on the problem you are trying to solve. Someone juggling multiple loans, recovering from missed payments or dealing with a potentially fraudulent account may benefit from personalized assistance. For everyone else, a free credit report checked periodically may do the job.