Thinking of buying car, buying a home or refinancing an existing mortgage, even applying for insurance? Before you do any of these things you need to know your credit score – also know as FICO (for the Fair Issac Company – the initiator of the credit scoring process).

Don’t confuse your credit report with your FICO or credit score. While you credit report is something you should review frequently – most loan decisions are made using your credit score (FICO).

Example FICO Ranges - For Illustration Only

Don’t ever pay someone for your credit report – this is available free from the official government mandated site -  AnnualCreditReport.com. You’re entitled to a free credit report once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus.

If you check your report on a rotating basis among the three agencies, you can get a free report every four months. You should look at all three since there may be discrepancies.

If you find errors in your report (not uncommon) you should take steps to get them corrected. Each of the bureaus has there own process for doing this – review the process on the individual agency’s website.

OK, so it’s great that you can get a free credit report – this used to be something you got charged for – but it’s not the whole story, or all that you need to know. You also really need to know your credit score, and you need check it periodically to see if it has changed.

Like already mentioned – the FICO score is what creditors will base their decisions on – and it can effect the rates you are offered, and whether or not you qualify for whatever it is you are trying to do.

Typically there is a charge of some kind to find out your credit score. Sometimes your banking relationship may make your score available for a fee or include it as part of a package of services you are charged for in some way – they may require that you keep a minimum balance for example.

So you might inquire where you do your banking, or where you keep your 401k, or any other place you might have money on deposit to see if you can find out your score for free.