Enquiry Control Number (ECN): Access Your Credit Report & Improve Creditworthiness For Future Loans

Last Updated : Jan. 18, 2025, 3:46 p.m.

Your CIBIL score and CIBIL report are important factors determining the approval of your loan application. The CIBIL report features your CIBIL history for the past 36 months and reflects your creditworthiness. Before applying for a credit card or a loan, it is ideal to check your own CIBIL report to understand whether you are eligible to apply. With an excellent CIBIL score and report, you will get access to top loans and credit cards from the best banks and NBFCs. However, lenders will want to check your CIBIL report to know your financial status. This is an essential step they have to take to ensure that you are not a risky borrower. This is known as a hard credit pull. This will be done with your authorization only. When such information is requested, CIBIL releases the details using the Enquiry Control Number or the ECN. Let us now read about the ECN in detail.

What is the ECN in the CIBIL Report?

The ECN stands for the Enquiry Control Number, which is a unique 9 digit alphanumeric code assigned to your CIBIL credit report. It acts as an identifier for the lenders and financial institutions to access your CIBIL report accurately. It prevents mix ups and mismatches.

What are the Uses of ECN?

The uses of ECN are as follows:

• Identification: The ECN serves as a unique identifier for lenders to access your CIBIL report and get information from it. The ECN ensures that your credit data is linked to you alone just like the exam roll number.
  
• Tracking: The ECN helps lenders track your credit enquiries and maintain accurate records about them.
  
• Access to credit report: When you apply for a loan or credit card, lenders use the ECN to access your CIBIL report. This report reflects your creditworthiness. Lenders conduct a hard credit pull on your report with your authorization. By viewing it, they will be able to ascertain your financial status. The report shows your repayment history, outstanding debts, open accounts, credit score, etc.
  
• Security and Data integrity: The ECN protects your credit information. It facilitates the access of your CIBIL report only by authorized parties having the correct ECN. This helps in preventing unauthorized access and maintains data integrity.

How to Get your ECN number?

• From your CIBIL Report: You can find the ECN number on your CIBIL report, displayed in the top right corner. You can request a copy of the CIBIL report online through the official portal of CIBIL or by calling the customer service helpline of CIBIL.
  
• From the Lender: If you have just recently applied for a loan or credit card, you can call the lender and request for your ECN. They may have saved it when they accessed your credit report. However, further verification is needed to ensure that the information is valid.
  
• CIBIL Helpline: You can call the CIBIL customer service helpline - 1800-224-245 and ask for your ECN. You have to then go through the verification process done by CIBIL. Once you complete it, you will receive the number.

What is the Role of ECN in Credit Card and Loan Approvals?

• Helps in Accurate Tracking: CIBIL will have millions of credit reports. ECN helps lenders locate the individual whose credit report they want correctly. The unique identifier number ensures that wrong data does not go into the lender’s hands. In this way, it provides security for your data and helps lenders also get the correct information.
  
• Accounting of Every Credit Inquiry: It facilitates the accounting of every credit inquiry. Thus, each credit inquiry can be referenced easily in the future. This saves time and brings organization to the process of tracking and credit approval.
  
• Provides Data Security: The ECN adds an extra layer of security to your credit information. Only if lenders have the ECN, they can access your credit report. This prevents unauthorized access, thus protecting your data.
  
• Evaluating Your Creditworthiness: When you apply for a loan or a credit card, lenders use your ECN to pull out your CIBIL report and assess your creditworthiness. They decide whether to give you a loan based on your creditworthiness. Parameters that they look into include credit score, repayment history, and outstanding debts. The higher the credit score, the better the loan terms and the interest rates. Your chances of approval increase with credit score.

Checking your CIBIL Score With Wishfin

You can do a free CIBIL score check on Wishfin, which is the first fintech to officially partner with TransUnion CIBIL. You can also view your detailed CIBIL report once you login. Wishfin will show you preapproved offers you are eligible for. You can choose from the offers and apply for loans and credit cards on the website.

Conclusion

The Enquiry Control Number (ECN), a unique nine-digit identification, is the control number used to store credit reports for each individual in the CIBIL database. As previously established, this number is unique to each person in the CIBILTM database and cannot be shared by two or more people.