Information about our loans and credits is collected by the Credit Information Bureau (BIK). Read about why BIK collects this data, what credit history is and how it may affect obtaining financial products in the future. In addition, our article explains how to check your BIK record quickly and easily.

BIK – what is it?

The Credit Information Bureau (BIK) was established by the Polish Bank Association in 1997. It was created to collect and store data concerning various financial products or obligations of individuals and entities conducting their own business activity, including customers of banks, non-bank companies and so-called SKOKs. Information held by the Credit Information Bureau may be checked only by authorized institutions, in particular courts and the prosecutor's office, as well as the banks, lenders and SKOKs mentioned above. This data is updated by BIK once a month throughout the entire period from taking out, for example, a payday loan until it is repaid.

What data does BIK collect?

The Credit Information Bureau collects both positive information, such as loans repaid on time, and negative information, such as unpaid or late-repaid loans. The data collected by BIK is organized, integrated and compiled into a credit history. This data allows institutions providing various financial products and services to confirm whether a consumer applying for a loan or credit, for example, repaid all previously taken-out financial products on time. Both regular and late repayment of a financial product will affect our credit history in BIK. If we have no outstanding obligations, we should have no problem applying, for example, for additional funds from a bank. In the case of debt and, consequently, a negative credit history, we may have serious problems obtaining a bank loan. In this situation, will loan companies reject a loan application? Some certainly will, but there are also lenders operating on our market that offer loans without BIK checks.

Can BIK records be cleared?

Unfortunately, no; our options for changing our credit history in BIK are limited. We can only give or withdraw consent to the processing of data, for example, about a repaid loan, or submit a special application to restructure a loan at a bank. In addition, the Credit Information Bureau guarantees the right to request correction of inaccurate or outdated information. It should also be emphasized here that the rules for submitting data to BIK, storing it and making any changes to it are governed by the Banking Law.

Download a BIK report and find out your credit history

Anyone who wants to find out what data about their obligations is collected by the Credit Information Bureau can download a special BIK report. What must you do to receive it? Simply:

  • register on the BIK website and provide basic information from your identity card and your email address,
  • then send a scan of your identity card and make a verification transfer of a symbolic one złoty,
  • after completing these steps, you should receive an email and an SMS with an authorization code that will allow you to create your account password,
  • the final step is to choose a service package: one BIK report for PLN 39 or 12 reports for PLN 99. It is also worth using the free version of the report, which can be requested only once every six months.

The 12-report BIK package includes not only the reports themselves, but also an indicator that allows you to check your status on the BIK website. Green means everything is fine, orange is a kind of warning about minor financial arrears, while red indicates a poor credit history.

What is creditworthiness assessment in BIK?

The BIK report will also include a detailed assessment of your creditworthiness, calculated using a carefully developed mathematical formula. It can range from 1 to 100. The report explains how to interpret the number of points received and provides a detailed explanation of the factors that affected the so-called scoring. The more points we receive in the creditworthiness assessment, the greater our chance of obtaining, for example, a cash loan. However, it should be remembered that banks may use different scoring models and accept different levels of risk depending on the financial products offered—for example, granting a mortgage loan entails the greatest risk for a financial institution.