Understand Your Credit Report

When there is enough information on your borrowing habits - after you've consistently used your line of credit and made payments for several months - you will be assigned a credit score with each credit bureau. The score changes each time new information about your credit behavior is reported to the bureaus. Based on your score, companies and banks decide whether or not they will do business with you and on what terms.

Credit scores will be provided to finance use to determine many factors, including:

• Whether you qualify for a mortgage, and how much money you can borrow
• Whether a landlord should trust you to pay your rent on time each month
• What kind of limit you should have on your credit card
• What sort of interest rate will be available to you
• Whether you qualify for an increased credit line