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What is a credit score and how can I find mine?

Your credit score is a three digit number ranging from 300-850 that represents your credit history; the higher the number, the better your credit rating.  This number is used by potential creditors to determine the risk involved with lending you money.  Usually, the higher your credit score, the lower the interest rates you will get on loans and lines of credit.  If your score is too low, you could be denied for credit when you apply for new accounts or loans. 

Many factors are included when determining your credit rating, including your income, debt-to-income ratio, payment history, available credit vs. used credit, age of accounts, assets, and length of employment.  This information is taken, and using a system developed by a business called the Fair Isaacs Company, and is turned into your credit rating, or FICO score. 

There are three main companies that collect information about your credit history and use it to produce a credit rating.  These are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, the three national credit-reporting agencies.  Each agency calculates their own scores, so your credit rating may be slightly different from each one.  If there are major discrepancies between the credit ratings from the different agencies, it is a sign that there are mistakes on at least one of your reports.  Any errors you may find must be removed by the credit agencies if they cannot prove their validity within 30 days.

To see a copy of your credit report, you need to contact one of the three credit-reporting agencies.  By law, everyone is entitled to one free credit report each year.  Besides this, you must pay a fee in order to receive a copy of your report.  You can call the credit-reporting agencies, send in a written request, or inquire on-line.  Each company has slightly different rules about how to request a free report, so be sure to ask them about it. 

It is also possible to receive a combined report that shows the information from all three credit-reporting agencies.  These reports can be helpful in comparing the data from the different sources to check for inaccuracies.  They can be confusing, however, so if it is your first time reading your credit report, or if it has been a while, you might want to look at the reports one by one.  If you are not satisfied with your credit score, the best way to improve your rating is to pay all of your bills in-full and on time each month.

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