Essential for your personal finances

Your credit score is one of the most important factors that determine how much money you are able to borrow. This applies to borrowing to buy a house, car, or increase the limit of your credit card. A higher credit score also relates directly to your ability to get low interest rates on money you borrow. You probably have heard advertisments to get your credit score or report free online. In many cases, you can get your credit report free online. In other cases, it may be better to spend a few dollars to get a one time credit score and credit report. It is important to get your credit score even if you are not about to lease an apartment or borrow money. This is because problems in your credit report can be fixed if you find them early, whereas problems you don't find for six months or more may permanently affect your ability to borrow.

Choosing a service

When you are choosing a way to get your credit score or credit report, you can choose almost any service online. If you are getting it free, just make sure to cancel whatever other service they are trying to sign you up for before the free period is over. It is often ok to just pay ten or twenty dollars for a look at your credit score or report. This is a pittance compared with the cost of a serious problem in your credit report. Sometimes, the cheapest services are ones that will give you your credit report and scores at regular intervals, either ever three months or every month.

Report vs. Score

Your credit score and report are two distinct things. The credit score is just a number, usually up to 850. There are several different rating agencies and although there are differences, they are for the most part the same. Some score reporting services will give you a triple report, the score from three reporting scores. Your credit report is the details that make up the score. This is arguably more important to look at because you can see if there are any problems that are making your score lower than it should be. This could be someone stealing your identity to open up other accounts or something as simple as a small payment that you may never have paid that has gone out to a collections agency.

Checking your credit report and scores is a great idea. If you haven't checked this information in the past six months, it is essential you take a look at this information online soon.