Credit Score Needed for a Personal Loan

We are not going to print a lender-by-lender cut-off table. Every competitor page in this category has one, and none of them can source it. What we can tell you is how the band works and what it costs.

What credit score do I need for a personal loan?

Think in bands, not in a single number. A CIBIL score runs from 300 to 900. Lenders slot you into a band and price the loan from there.

Above roughly 750, you are in the band that sees the advertised floor rate. Between about 700 and 750, you will usually still get approved, at a wider spread. Below 700, mainstream banks tend to decline and non-banking finance companies take over, at a materially higher rate.

The score is not the only gate. Lenders also test your income, how long you have been employed, whether your employer is on their approved list, and your existing obligations. A 780 score with a fixed-obligations-to-income ratio above the cap is still a decline.

What does a lower score actually cost?

This is the part worth doing arithmetic on. Personal loan pricing is risk-based and the spread within a single lender is enormous.

Look at HDFC Bank. The same lender quotes 9.99% to one applicant and 24.00% to another. That fourteen-point gap is the price of your risk band, and your score is the biggest single input into it.

On a ₹5,00,000 loan over five years, the difference between the bottom and top of that range runs to well over a lakh of extra interest. Improving your score before you apply is worth more than shopping between lenders. Our how to improve your credit score guide is the practical version.

Where does the score actually come from?

From what your lenders report. Under the RBI’s Credit Information Companies Directions, as amended from 1 July 2026, credit institutions must submit credit information to every credit information company as on the 9th, 16th, 23rd and the last day of each month. The 9th, 16th and 23rd updates are due within four calendar days, and the month-end file by the 5th of the next month.

That is a recent tightening and it changes the advice. Data used to sit stale for a month or more. Now a payment you make today can be reflected within weeks, so cleaning up a utilisation problem before applying is genuinely faster than it used to be.

That ₹100 a day is real and almost nobody claims it. If a bureau has sat on your dispute past thirty days, say so in writing and cite the Directions. Our credit report dispute page covers the process.

Check your score before you apply, not after

Checking your own report is a soft enquiry and does not affect the score. A lender pulling your report for an application is a hard enquiry and does.

The damage from one hard enquiry is small and temporary. The damage from six in a fortnight is not. Multiple applications across lenders in a short window reads as distress borrowing, and it can turn an approval into a decline on its own. Read hard versus soft enquiry before you start applying.

Use the free full credit report you are entitled to each calendar year. Read it for errors first. A closed loan still showing as live, or a settled account you thought was closed, is common and it is fixable. Our free credit score page explains where to get it.

If your score is below 700

Here is the uncomfortable answer. You will probably still get a loan. It will cost you 20% or more, and the processing fee will be at the top of the range.

At those rates, ask whether you need an unsecured loan at all. A loan against a fixed deposit or against securities is priced off the security, not off your score. A secured route at half the rate beats a fast approval at 28%.

If the loan is to clear card debt, check the arithmetic first. Replacing a 45% card balance with a 24% personal loan is still a large saving. Our paying off credit card debt page runs through the options in order of cost.

And if you have a past settlement on your record, know what it does. A settled account is flagged, and it holds your score down for years. See credit score after settlement.