More and more people are asking themselves how can I get my credit score. A credit score is like any other score, it's a value given to you that averages how your credit is doing. It's one of the more important scores however, because your credit determines how well you pay your bills and how likely someone is to lend money to you. Someone with a bad credit score can see themselves denied applications for credit cards, mortgages, etc. Since it's so important, you may be asking how can I get my credit score?
First, it's important to understand what types of items can affect a credit score. Typically, your credit is a list of what you've done in the past financially, including the credit cards you have, whether you've ever been late on them, the mortgages you have and again if you're late or not with your mortgage payments, and if anyone thinks you owe them money. People and companies can add entries to your credit if they think you haven't paid them, and this in turn will lower your score.
So knowing who you paid late, or haven't paid yet, is crucial. But more than that, other things can affect your credit score. For example, mistakes can happen, and your score may be affected because someone entered a wrong account number somewhere. Or more problematic is the case of identity fraud. If someone dives in your dumpster and finds old receipts and financial statements, they can open an account under your name, and run up debts, which in turn will hurt your score tremendously.
So now that you know everything that can go wrong with your score, the important question remains: How can I get my credit score? In the US, the most useful score is produced by FICO, which is the corporation that came up with this particular method of calculating a credit score. All the big credit bureaus have their own variations on that, but they all produce similar scores.
The big ones are Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. They all offer credit scores to individuals and companies who ask for it. When you go to take out a mortgage, the bank goes to one of these three credit bureaus and asks for your score, and then they decide whether you're too risky to lend to. If you want your own score, you can go to each of their sites and pay a processing fee, then get your score as well. You can also go directly to FICO. There are other companies that also offer credit scores as part of other services, such as credit card companies or credit monitoring services.
Now that you know the basics of a credit score, and the big question "how can I get my credit score" has been answered, you may be wondering if it's worth the money, because in most cases it won't be free. The answer is up to you, depending if you have a reason to believe your score is bad, or has a mistake in it. Have you been denied a loan lately or have been offered an unusually high interest rate on a mortgage? You won't have to stop and ask how can I get my credit score, you'll already know. Get your credit score!
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