Below about 650, unsecured personal loans are either unavailable or priced at 20–24% — at which point the honest answer is that a secured alternative is nearly always better. A loan against a fixed deposit, a gold loan or a top-up on an existing home loan will cost a fraction of that, because the lender is not pricing your score.
| Typical unsecured pricing below 650 | 20 – 24 % p.a. |
|---|---|
| What it means | Where offered. Secured alternatives typically cost half this or less. |
as of 2026-08-15 · Lender rate cards · reported
What to know
Before borrowing at 24%, check whether the score is even correct. Bureau errors are common — a closed loan still showing as live, a settlement wrongly recorded, an account that is not yours. Every bureau must give you one free full report a year and must resolve a dispute within a defined window, and the four bureaus do not hold identical files — we compare them on the credit bureaus compared page. A month spent fixing an error is worth more than any rate you will negotiate at this score level.
If the score is accurate and the need is genuine, borrow the smallest amount over the shortest tenure you can service, and repay it perfectly. Six months of clean repayment on a small secured facility moves a thin or damaged file more than anything else available to you. What you should not do is take a second loan to service the first — that is the sequence that ends in a settlement, and a settled status rather than a closed one stays on your report for years.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a personal loan with a CIBIL score of 600?
Some NBFCs and fintech lenders will lend at 600, at rates in the 20–24% range with a small ticket size and a short tenure. Whether you should take it is a different question — a loan against a fixed deposit or gold typically costs less than half, because the collateral replaces the score in the underwriting.
What is the fastest way to improve a low credit score?
Clear any overdue amount immediately — payment history carries the most weight. Then bring credit card utilisation below about 30% of the limit, which can move the number within one or two reporting cycles. Dispute any error on the report. Beyond that it is time and clean repayment; nobody can legitimately delete accurate adverse history.
Do “credit repair” services work?
They cannot remove accurate information — no one can, and anyone promising it is selling a fraud. What they do is file disputes you can file yourself for free with each bureau. If the entry is genuinely wrong, dispute it directly; if it is right, nothing legal will remove it before its retention period expires.
Sources
- TransUnion CIBIL — Understanding your CIBIL score and report (primary source)
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