Minimum CIBIL Score for a Car Loan: What Each Bank's Grid Asks

Minimum CIBIL score for a car loan at each lender's lowest rate

Every floor in our car loan interest rate table has a condition; at most public sector banks it is a score band, as below (verified 9 November 2026).

Bank of Baroda sets a 701 cut-off, considers a -1 score and prints no grid. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Central Bank of India, Karnataka Bank, Saraswat Bank and Tamilnad Mercantile Bank say the rate follows your bureau score but print no bands; there, your sanction letter is the only number that counts.

How two published grids step down the score ladder

UCO Bank has the longest ladder: 7.70% p.a. at 825 and above, 7.90% at 800 to 824, 8.00% at 750 to 799, then 8.25% to 8.45% at 726 to 749 and 8.55% to 8.75% at 700 to 725, split by borrower category. After that comes the jump: 9.30% at 650 to 699, and 10.25% at 600 to 649 for salary-account holders only.

Bank of Maharashtra prints a salaried and a non-salaried column: 7.70% and 7.80% at 800 or more, 7.90% and 8.00% at 776 to 799, 8.00% and 8.10% at 750 to 775, 8.30% and 8.50% at 700 to 749. Below 700 the ladder breaks: a salaried borrower at 650 to 699 pays 9.85%, a jump of 1.55 points (9.85 minus 8.30) for one band, then 10.15% at 600 to 649 and 10.90% below 600.

The lowest score any grid prices, and what a 650 costs

No lender prints a universal minimum, so here is the lowest row each grid prices. Bank of Maharashtra goes furthest: 'below 600' at 10.90% p.a. salaried, 12.00% non-salaried. UCO Bank prices 600 to 649 at 10.25% for salary-account holders, Union Bank of India 'below 650' at 10.25%. Punjab & Sind Bank prints 14.30% for 649 and below, but its digital route puts the minimum score at 700 and marks the two lowest rows as renewal rates.

Six grids price the 650s: UCO Bank 9.30% p.a., SBI 9.40% on 3 to 5 year loans, Punjab & Sind Bank 9.65%, Union Bank of India 9.75%, Bank of Maharashtra 9.85% salaried, City Union Bank 10.20%.

In rupees: on ₹10 lakh for 5 years, the EMI is ₹20,133 at 7.7% and ₹20,517 at 8.5%, so 0.8 points (8.5 minus 7.7) adds ₹384 a month (20,517 minus 20,133) and ₹23,005 in interest (2,30,992 minus 2,07,987). Test your band in the car loan EMI calculator.

Car loan without a CIBIL score: the new-to-credit rows

First-time borrowers appear on these grids as -1, 0, or a new-to-credit band of 100 to 200, and six of the eight grids price such a file.

• SBI swaps CIBIL for its own RSM score: 71 or more gets 8.80% p.a. and 41 to 70 gets 9.05% on a 3 to 5 year loan.
• UCO Bank prices '0, -1 and below 300' at 8.40% to 8.75% by borrower category, at or under its 700 to 725 band.
• Union Bank of India prices '-1 and 1 to 5' at 8.00%, below its 700 to 749 row of 8.45%.
• Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of Maharashtra price new-to-credit files at 8.00% and 9.00% (salaried), City Union Bank prices 100 to 200 at 10.20%, and Bank of Baroda considers a -1 score beside its 701 cut-off.

PNB gives women 7.90% p.a. at any score, and an empty file is often priced below a damaged one.

How to lift your score before applying

The rate is set on the score the bank pulls at sanction, and under the RBI's interest rate directions the credit-risk part of a floating spread changes only when your credit assessment changes substantially. So a rung climbed before applying is saved for the whole tenure.

1. Pull your free report: the RBI's 2023 circular on credit bureau customer service give you one free full report a year from each bureau, score included. Dispute errors in writing; a lender that sits on a correction beyond 21 days owes ₹100 a day after 30 days.
2. Clear overdues and bring card balances down first; lenders report to all four bureaus as of the 9th, 16th, 23rd and last day each month, so a payment made now shows within weeks.
3. Stop fresh applications until sanction; several enquiries in a short span read as credit hunger. Shortlist two or three banks and apply once.

How to choose the right car loan for your score band

Start from your actual score, not the banner rate, and compare only your row in each grid. At 825 and above, UCO Bank's 7.70% p.a. leads our lowest car loan rate ranking; at 800 to 824 Bank of Maharashtra (salaried) holds 7.70% while UCO moves to 7.90%; in the 750s PNB's 7.90% leads.

Then check funding share, tenure, fees and the income and age lines in our car loan eligibility guide. A grid row is a published rate for a band, not an offer; our car loan section covers the rest.

Common mistakes

• Reading a 'from 7.70%' banner as your rate at a score of 720; on UCO Bank's grid that row is 8.55% to 8.75%.
• Applying to five banks in a week and dropping a band in the process.
• Treating a -1 score as a rejection when six grids price it, some below a 700 score.