Jargon busted

DPD (days past due)

Short answer

DPD (days past due) is the month-by-month grid on your credit report showing how late each account ran: 0 (or XXX/STD) is clean, then 30, 60, 90 buckets escalate. It is the first thing a manual underwriter reads, because it is your repayment behaviour with no averaging — a single 90 stays visible for years of otherwise perfect history.

What it means

Your score compresses history into one number; the DPD grid is the history. Each account shows up to 36 months of buckets, exactly as lenders reported them to the bureaus. As CIBIL's guidance explains, this payment history is the heaviest input into the score itself.

Reading a row: 0 0 0 0 030 0 0 - one bill slipped about a month, five months ago, then recovered. A lender sees a stumble, not a pattern. 030 060 090 in sequence is a different story: a balance that was sinking, not slipping.

The common mistake

Ignoring a "small" 30. One 030 ages and fades. But 30 is also the doorway — every 90 started as a 30 — and lenders price the trajectory. The moment a bill slips, the priority is stopping bucket two, even if that means paying only the minimum due this month while you regroup.

The subtlety worth knowing

DPD errors are among the most common bureau mistakes — a payment posted late by the bank, a closed account still reporting. Check the grid line by line in your free annual report, and dispute in writing anything that does not match your records. A wrongful 90 is far too expensive to leave standing.

Settled vs closed · Minimum amount due · What is a credit score

All figures on this page are indicative and dated. Rates and fees differ by bank and change over time. Always verify with your bank's official schedule of charges.

Frequently asked questions

What do the codes in the DPD column mean?

Numbers are days late that month: 0 means on time, 030 means about a month late. STD (standard) is current or mildly late; SMA flags growing stress; SUB, DBT and LSS are deep-default classifications. Anything beyond 0 or STD is worth understanding and, if wrong, disputing.

Paying minimum due keeps my DPD at zero - so is minimum due fine?

For the DPD grid, yes: minimum due by the due date counts as paid on time. Interest still compounds on the full balance, so it is an expensive way to stay clean. Clean DPD and mounting debt can coexist - the grid measures punctuality, not health.

Sources

The regulation and official pages this page is checked against. If one of them disagrees with us, it wins.

FAQs — Understand Your Credit Score and Report — TransUnion CIBIL

Written and checked by the CardSamajh editorial desk · Last reviewed: 24 August 2026 · How we check this