Credit score in Poland - how to build it?

Let’s talk about the credit score in Poland.

A credit score is quite important when it comes to taking the mortgage or any other type of loan, as each bank is profiling applicants mainly through their credit score and divides them into different risk groups. Depending on which group you are assigned to bank decides how much it is willing to loan to you and sometimes also for what price it wants to offer you the loan.

When it comes to banks, a credit score in Poland is being tracked by the Credit Reference Office (Biuro Informacji Kredytowej – BIK). This institution tracks all your bank liabilities: cash loans, credit cards, limits in accounts, mortgages, etc. The main rule is simple – each time you pay a monthly payment on time your score gets higher and each time you miss the deadline it gets lower.

VERY IMPORTANT! Whenever you check your credit score at the bank it takes a couple of points from your overall score. It is important to remember, as some customers tend to check the offer at many banks by giving consent to check their credit score – this leads to a significant drop in credit score and affects later your application. Also, when you check your credit score in 2-3 different banks throughout one month, you are putting a kind of red flag on yourself, which might lead to an automatic negative decision on your loan application. To avoid such a situation, it is best to check the bank offers without giving consent to have your credit score checked and then apply at the one with the best offer – the easiest way to do it is by using a broker that can get you offers without the need of you visiting the banks.

To have the offers as accurate as possible, best is to download your credit score independently, one-time report costs 39 złoty and it can be done here: https://www.bik.pl/. A report downloaded this way does not affect your score negatively.

Overall, each person in Poland has some credit score, even if you never used a bank’s products your score is ‘no-score’. Each bank is building its credit policies based on the credit scores of customers, for example, some might be not interested in giving loans to people with ‘no-score’, others might be willing to give a maximum of 10 thousand to such person, while another 50 thousand. At the same time, some banks might be willing to offer a loan of above 500 thousand only to customers with a credit score of 600 and above, other to customers with a score higher than 500, etc. Banks have strict policies regarding it and sometimes a couple of points in your credit score might have a great influence on your loan application overall.

Building your credit score should be the first step when you are planning to take any kind of loan, mortgage included. The most efficient ways to build the score are:

• getting a credit card and using 10% of its limit on a regular monthly basis, and also repaying the debt month by month, in case you might forget, you should be able to apply automatic repayment from your personal account 
• buying any kind of appliance or other items via popular 'raty 0%', this would not cost you anything, while regular monthly payments for such purchase would quickly build up your credit score

For more feel welcome to contact us directly.

Best regards,

Loan-brokers.pl Team

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