GURUGRAM, India and MUMBAI, India, Aug. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — FREED, India’s first liability management platform, today launched EMI Score, a free borrower-first measure of financial health. EMI Score reads income stability and quality, monthly savings, and total loans and EMIs, then places each borrower on a scale of 0 to 100 that shows exactly where they stand and what they can comfortably carry.
The score is free and live today at freed.care/emi-score.
Why India needs a borrower-side score
Credit is one of the most powerful tools a household has. Borrowing is how millions of Indians move their lives forward, and the expansion of credit in this country has been genuinely good for people and for the economy. A loan works best when it is taken to build something, and when it is taken after an honest assessment of whether it can be repaid sustainably.
That second part is where the gap lies. Household debt has climbed to 45.5% of GDP, and non-housing loans now account for 58.4% of household borrowing, per the RBI’s Financial Stability Report of June 2026.
Borrowers today have no simple way to answer the question that matters most to them: If they can genuinely afford this EMI alongside everything they are already carrying. Without an answer, millions quietly take on more than their income and savings can sustain, and find out only after a payment is missed, by which point the options have narrowed. What has been missing is a way for people to see stress building while they can still do something about it.
How EMI Score works
EMI Score brings together three parts of a person’s financial life into a single number between 0 and 100:
Income– how stable and sufficient monthly earnings are
Savings– the cushion available to fall back on
Loan behaviour– how well existing loans are being handled
The score places each borrower in one of three zones, and each zone leads to a clear next step.
Zone | What the score is saying | What follows |
Green 65 to 100 • Prevention | Income covers EMIs, savings are | Keep the habits going and check |
Amber 35 to 64 • Care | Stress is building. EMIs are rising | Nothing has broken yet, but this is |
Red 0 to 34 • Cure | Finances are under real strain, | This is the point to stop borrowing |
Prevention, care and cure are how FREED has built its debt relief solutions stack. EMI Score is the diagnosis. What follows it is treatment.
Ritesh Srivastava, Founder and CEO, FREED, said, “FREED exists to put the borrower first, and EMI Score is the clearest expression of that. Credit is a good thing. It is how people buy homes, educate their children and build businesses. The question is never whether to borrow. It is whether this loan, at this moment, is one you can comfortably carry. Today most people discover they are in stress only after a missed payment. We want to move that moment earlier, from cure to care to prevention. A loan should help you move forward. It should never become the thing that keeps you up at night.”
Every borrower already knows their credit score, and it does its job well. EMI Score answers a different question, and it answers it for the borrower rather than the lender. It is not a record of how loans have been handled in the past. It is a read on whether today’s income and savings can carry today’s EMIs, and what happens if one more is added.
Both readings matter, and they are strongest together. When borrowers understand what they can sustain and stay within their means, defaults become less likely and the wider lending system grows steadier. Over time, a trusted borrower-side measure of borrowing health becomes a bridge between borrowers and lenders, helping both sides make better and more sustainable decisions. That is the India FREED is working toward, where people borrow confidently, responsibly, and with a clear understanding of what they can truly afford.
About FREED
FREED is India’s first liability management platform, built to help borrowers take charge of their loans at every stage, from staying financially healthy to simplifying and resolving debt. Through EMI Score, credit insights, loan consolidation, loan settlement and FREED Shield, the platform gives borrowers a clear view of where they stand and the tools to act on it, so that a loan stays an enabler of progress and never a source of stress.
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