Risk Grades Explained: What AA Through HH Actually Mean

A CBS credit report doesn’t give you one overall “score” the way some overseas credit systems do. Instead, each account on your report gets its own risk grade: a letter code that summarises that account’s payment history at the point the report was generated.

The main scale runs from AA (the best band) down through HH (the most adverse band). Here’s what the grades describe.

The AA to CC band: no adverse history recorded

Accounts graded in this range have no default or serious arrears recorded against them. This describes the account’s history as reported; it isn’t a promise about how any lender will treat a future application, and it isn’t a single portable “score” that follows you everywhere.

The DD to GG band: some arrears recorded

Grades in the middle of the scale generally correspond to accounts where a late or missed payment was recorded at some point, without escalating to a formal default. The exact boundaries between bands are defined by CBS, not by Credit Clarity.

The HH band and default markers

HH and related grades (including the historical marker HX, covered in a separate CBS reference) indicate a default was recorded on the account. This reflects what happened on that specific account. It doesn’t tell you what any specific lender will decide about a future application, and Credit Clarity doesn’t make that prediction either.

What a risk grade is not

A risk grade is not a single number that represents “you” as a person. It’s attached to a specific account, generated from that account’s payment history. Two accounts on the same report can carry different grades, and the grade itself says nothing about what to do next; it describes what already happened.

If you’re trying to understand a grade on your own report, Credit Clarity’s job is to explain what it means, not to tell you how to respond to it. For that kind of guidance, a MAS-licensed financial adviser or Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS) is the appropriate resource.