How to check if you are listed on CRB

CRB companies have credit history data of at least 14 million Kenyans. [File, Standard]

There are three licensed companies you can use to check your CRB listing or status in Kenya. These are Metropol, Transunion Credit and Credit Info Kenya.

The credit reference bureau (CRB) refers to a licensed company that collects data on loans issued by lending institutions and consequently creates reports – known as credit reports – on a borrower’s current and past loans.

With this information, a CRB is able to predict the repayment patterns of each borrower.

When you approach a bank or credit company for a loan, they will obtain your credit report and use the repayment information to determine if they will give you the loan, or not.

Metropol, Transunion Credit and Credit Info Kenya are the only CRBs licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya to operate in the country.

How do you check if you are listed on CRB?

Metropol

Dial the USSD code *433# on your phone. If you are an unregistered user of Metropol, you will first pay Sh100 for registration services. You can pay the fee using M-Pesa, or seek payment instructions on SMS.

After you have paid the Sh100, you will wait between 12 to 48 hours for your registration to reflect. This waiting period allows the CRB company, in this case, Metropol, to obtain your loan records or credit history.

Once your registration is complete, you will get a notification informing you that you can, henceforth, access Metropol services.

The registration fee — Sh100 — is paid only once, and you will, moving forward, be able to access the CRB listing services without having to register afresh.

The services offered by Metropol are CRB listing status, credit score inquiry, credit report, CRB certificate and knowing who has listed you on CRB.

When you are a registered user, Metropol will send you a PIN via SMS upon selecting a service that you’re in need of.

Once you key in the PIN, results of the request — for instance, CRB listing status, credit score inquiry or the application to know who listed you on CRB — will be sent to you via SMS.

Each Metropol service, however, attracts its separate fee. For credit score, you will pay Sh150 to get the report for each year. Each Kenyan is awarded marks between 200 and 900. Any marks below 400 mean one’s rating is low because he or she is a defaulter.

A rating in the range of 800 and 900 means one has a high rating and is therefore good at offsetting his or her loans. This gives banks the indication that you’re a good borrower.

For a credit report, the fee is Sh250. This report gives you detailed information on institutions that have listed you on CRB.

The CRB Kenya clearance certificate is the most expensive service, billed at Sh2,200. An applicant only gets this certificate after ensuring he or she has cleared all the loans they had.

Metropol Managing Director, Sam Omukoko, told The Standard that all borrowers’ loan records are submitted to the CRB companies for in-depth analysis into their payment patterns.

“Lenders are no longer submitting names of defaulters only. A law was enacted in 2013 directing banks and credit companies to submit to CRB companies details of all borrowers,” he said.

“I’m urging Kenyans to register with CRB companies so that they can know their credit scores, among other financial details. This enables one to know how the banks will look at them when applying for loans.”

One can get details of his or her CRB status at no cost once yearly, the law says.

Metropol MD, Omukoko, says people previously listed as defaulters can only get clearance certificates once the banks or credit companies make a request to the CRB companies to have the clients delisted as debt-dodgers.

“Once you clear your loan with the bank, they will write to us, directing that we remove you from the list of defaulters. Your bank will inform you when that is done so that you can apply for the certificate,” said Omukoko.

“The clearance certificate will not hide or improve your credit history. It will capture it (history) as is,” said the Metropol MD, adding that the Sh2,200 paid for the certificate is a processing fee and not a penalty.

The Certificate of Clearance (COC) is valid as at the date of issue. This is because CRBs receive information on a daily basis which could alter the customer information.

According to Omukoko, the CRB companies have records of at least 14 million Kenyans, including defaulters and compliant borrowers.

“Those who have registered with the CRB companies, but do not have any credit history are referred to as dormant profiles,” he said.

Besides Metropol, the other two platforms that offer CRB status services are Transunion Credit and Credit Info Kenya.

Transunion Credit

Using this platform, you can send your full name via SMS to 21272. You’ll thereafter enter your Identification Card (ID) number and choose Credit Status (CC). You will thereafter receive your CRB status on SMS. Using Transunion Credit, you will pay Sh650 to get Credit Report, and Sh2,200 to get your clearance certificate.

Credit Info Kenya

You can still register with Credit Info to get your credit information yearly. Simply visit creditinfo.co.ke to register. You’ll then receive your credit report in your email inbox.

In case of dissatisfaction against CRB listing, what should one do?

It is advisable that a borrower should constantly check their credit report to verify that the information contained in the report is correct.

If there is information that is not correct in the report, a borrower has a legal right to dispute the information.

To lodge a dispute, the borrower should contact the CRB from which he or she obtained the report. The CRB will issue the borrower with a form through which he or she can highlight the erroneous information.

The CRB company thereafter contacts the lending institution that provided the data to confirm the correctness of the information under dispute

The lending institution is required to investigate and respond within 14 days, confirming either the information is correct and thus should remain as is, or the information is erroneous and thus should be deleted, or the information is not up-to-date, and send in the correct and up-to-date status.

If a borrower is not satisfied with the outcome, he or she is allowed to append a summary of the dispute which remains appended on the credit report.

The Credit Information Sharing Association of Kenya (CIS-Kenya) runs an independent alternative dispute resolution centre, known as Tatua Centre, that exclusively deals with CRB-related disputes. Aggrieved borrowers can access the services of Tatua Centre free of charge.