New Delhi: With the onset of a credit rating system in India, agencies like Credit Information Bureau India Ltd (CIBIL), will be closely monitoring how prompt are you in bill repayments. A good repayment record will be rewarded and if you have a habit of missing the due dates your credit score could take a beating.

If the word credit score sounds Greek to you, it would be good that you get to know all about it very fast, because this number will be an indicator of your credit worthiness and in times to come, your credit score will more or less decide what interest rates you get on a loan or credit card.

CIBIL in association with TransUnion has formulated a rating system, which will assign a credit score to every borrower. Factors such as loan repayment history, outstanding debt, credit inquiries, amount of credit limit used and credit account history among during the past six months will be taken into account while arriving on a borrower's credit score.

Depending on how well he performs on the above parameters, a score between 300 to 900 will be given to the borrower. A person with high credit score will be a safe bet for banks, thus will get better rates and terms on various loans. CIBIL has partnered with 143 credit granting agencies to get this data and has all the major banks as its member.

Unlike the western countries, where public can view their credit scores, individuals in India won't have access to these numbers because they are not a member. CIBIL chairman S Santhanakrishnan said," This will be a generic scorecard used by all banks and credit card companies who use our data. Individuals are not members so they can't view scores. But if customers have any doubts about their score they are free to approach us."