What is a credit score?

A credit score is a number that is used to evaluate you for credit, such as loans or credit cards.

Companies use your financial information (such as the amount of debt you have, or how often you pay your loans on time) to generate a score that is important to consideration of your loan, mortgage or credit card application. Different companies use different formulas and difference scales to generate these scores, however, so there really is no one “credit score.” Companies that offer to sell you access to your “credit score” are really only giving you one look at one of many possible score that creditors may be seeing when they evaluate your application. More important than any specific score is your underlying financial condition – that is, keeping your debt low, making your payments on time, and checking to make sure that the major credit bureaus have your correct information (by requesting and reviewing your free report), is the best thing you can do to ensure you can get credit when you need it.