The Three C’s of Credit - National Financial Inclusion Taskforce (2024)

Your credit score is a measure of factors that may affect your ability to repay credit. It’s a complex formula that takes into account how you’ve repaid previous loans, any outstanding debt, and your current salary.

A credit score is dynamic and can change positively or negatively depending upon how much debt you accrue and how you manage your bills. The factors that determine your credit score are called The Three C’s of Credit – Character, Capital and Capacity.

Character:

From your credit history, a lender may decide whether you possess the honesty and reliability to repay a debt. Considerations may include:

  • Have you used credit before?
  • Do you pay your bills on time?
  • How long have you lived at your present address?
  • How long have you been at your present job?
Capital:

A lender will want to know if you have valuable assets such as real estate, personal property, investments, or savings with which to repay debt if income is unavailable.

Capacity:

This refers to your ability to repay the debt. The lender will look to see if you have been working regularly in an occupation that is likely to provide enough income to support your credit use.

The following questions may help the lender determine this:
  • What is your current salary?
  • How many other loan payments do you have?
  • What are your current living expenses?
  • What are your current debts?
  • How many dependents do you have?
The Three C’s of Credit - National Financial Inclusion Taskforce (2024)

FAQs

The Three C’s of Credit - National Financial Inclusion Taskforce? ›

A credit score is dynamic and can change positively or negatively depending upon how much debt you accrue and how you manage your bills. The factors that determine your credit score are called The Three C's of Credit – Character, Capital and Capacity.

What are the three C's of credit questions? ›

They are known as the “Three C's of Credit”: Capacity, Character, and Collateral: (1) Capacity: What is the individual's ability to repay the loan? (2) Character: What is the individual's reliability to repay the loan? (3) Collateral: What assets does the individual own that could be sold to repay the loan?

What are the 3 C's of a credit card? ›

For example, when it comes to actually applying for credit, the “three C's” of credit – capital, capacity, and character – are crucial.

What are the 3 C's of credit Quizlet? ›

The factors that determine your credit score are called The Three C's of Credit - Character, Capital and Capacity. Character: From your credit history, a lender may decide whether you possess the honesty and reliability to repay a debt.

What are the 3 C's of mortgage lending? ›

They evaluate credit and payment history, income and assets available for a down payment and categorize their findings as the Three C's: Capacity, Credit and Collateral.

What does the three 3 C's stand for? ›

We are all innately curious, compassionate, and courageous, but we must cultivate these values — the 3Cs — as daily habits to foster the independent thinking, free expression, and constructive communication that will enable our society to reach its full potential.

What does 3 C's stand for? ›

The 3 Cs of Brand Development: Customer, Company, and Competitors.

What is the purpose of the 3 C's of credit? ›

Students classify those characteristics based on the three C's of credit (capacity, character, and collateral), assess the riskiness of lending to that individual based on these characteristics, and then decide whether or not to approve or deny the loan request.

Who uses the 3 C's of credit? ›

The three C's are Character, Capacity and Collateral, and today they remain a widely accepted framework for evaluating creditworthiness, used globally by banks, credit unions and lenders of all types.

What is the meaning of C's of credit? ›

The lender will typically follow what is called the Five Cs of Credit: Character, Capacity, Capital, Collateral and Conditions. Examining each of these things helps the lender determine the level of risk associated with providing the borrower with the requested funds.

What are the 4 Cs of credit? ›

Character, capital, capacity, and collateral – purpose isn't tied entirely to any one of the four Cs of credit worthiness. If your business is lacking in one of the Cs, it doesn't mean it has a weak purpose, and vice versa.

What are three of the five Cs of credit? ›

Lenders score your loan application by these 5 Cs—Capacity, Capital, Collateral, Conditions and Character. Learn what they are so you can improve your eligibility when you present yourself to lenders.

What are the 4 Cs of credit mortgage? ›

Standards may differ from lender to lender, but there are four core components — the four C's — that lenders will evaluate in determining whether they will make a loan: capacity, capital, collateral and credit.

What are the C's of credit analysis? ›

Most lenders use the five Cs—character, capacity, capital, collateral, and conditions—when analyzing individual or business credit applications.

What are the 3 C's lenders consider when deciding whom to give credit to? ›

There are three key areas lenders look at to determine lending risk – cash flow, credit score and collateral. In the past, banks required businesses to have all three Cs to be considered loan worthy, but now with alternative lending options, businesses can still get funding despite missing one or two.

What are the 4 C's in credit investigation? ›

The 4 Cs of Credit helps in making the evaluation of credit risk systematic. They provide a framework within which the information could be gathered, segregated and analyzed. It binds the information collected into 4 broad categories namely Character; Capacity; Capital and Conditions.

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