Article
Understanding Your Credit
We hear a lot about credit — credit reports, credit scores, credit freezes, credit monitoring. What does it all mean for you? Your credit matters because it affects your ability to get a loan, a job, housing, insurance, and more. If you understand what your credit is, it’ll help you protect it.
What’s Your Credit, and Why Does It Matter?
When people talk about your credit, they mean your credit history. Your credit history describes how you use money. For example:
- How many credit cards do you have?
- How many loans do you have?
- Do you pay your bills on time, or are you late on payments?
How you’ve handled your money and bills in the past helps lenders decide if they want to do business with you. Your credit history also helps them determine what interest rate to charge you.
Who cares about your credit history?
Lenders, landlords, insurance companies, and potential employers are a few examples of who might look at your credit history. Your credit history can make a big difference when you
- apply for a loan or credit card
- look for a job
- rent an apartment
- buy or lease a car
- apply for rental or home insurance
How Do You Know If Your Credit Is Good?
“Good” or “bad” credit is based on your credit history. You probably have “good” credit if your credit history shows that you paid your bills on time and didn’t borrow more than you could afford to pay back. You might have "bad" credit if your credit history shows few or no bills paid back, that you paid your bills late, or that you couldn't afford to pay back the full amount you borrowed.
Find out what your credit history looks like by checking your credit report.
What’s in your credit report?
Your credit report is a summary of your credit history. The three nationwide credit bureaus — TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian — collect credit and other information about you. In your credit report, you’ll find information like
- your name, address, and Social Security number
- your credit cards
- your loans
- how much money you owe
- if you pay your bills on time or late
- if you filed for bankruptcy
Businesses pay the credit bureaus to check your credit. A business might run a credit check, for example, before it decides whether to lend you money, give you a credit card, or rent you an apartment.
The credit bureaus must make sure that the information they collect about you is accurate. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a federal law, requires this. Check your credit report regularly to be sure the right information is there. If you find mistakes, dispute them.
How to get your credit report
Because your credit report is a summary of your credit history, it’s important to make sure the information there is accurate. Since each nationwide credit bureau gets its information from different sources, the information in one credit bureau’s report might not be completely the same as information in reports from the other two credit bureaus.
Right now, the three nationwide credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — let you get your report for free online once a week from each bureau at AnnualCreditReport.com. These weekly reports are in addition to the free yearly credit report the law says you get from each bureau at AnnualCreditReport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.
Need more reports? Anyone in the U.S. can also get another six free credit reports from Equifax each year through 2026 at the Equifax website or by calling 1-866-349-5191.
What’s a credit score?
A credit score is a number — typically between 300-850 — that helps predict how likely you are to repay a loan and make the payments on time. Your score is based on information in your credit report.
Businesses use your credit score to help decide whether to give you credit and what the terms will be — including what interest rate you’ll pay to borrow money.
How to get your credit score
Unlike your free annual credit report, you often have to pay to get your credit score.
If you get an offer for free credit scores, check it closely. Some banks, credit card companies, and credit monitoring companies give you a credit score for free. Sometimes your credit score is only free when you sign up for paid credit monitoring services, where they check your credit report for you. Before you pay to get your credit score, think about whether you need it. Your credit score is based on what’s in your credit history: if you know your credit history is good, your credit score should be good. It might be interesting to know your score, but decide if you want to pay to get it.
See the Credit Scores article to learn more.
How Can You Protect Your Credit?
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Freezing your credit
A credit freeze (or security freeze) makes it harder for someone else to open new accounts in your name. If you’re worried about someone using your credit without permission — like after identity theft or a data breach — place a freeze on your credit report. Placing the credit freeze is free and lasts until you remove it. If you apply for credit, you’ll need to temporarily lift the freeze, since many banks and lenders do a credit check before they approve new accounts.
Some things to keep in mind about credit freezes:
- A credit freeze does not affect your credit score
- With a credit freeze in place, you’ll still be able to
- check your free credit reports
- open a new account. Just lift the freeze temporarily. Then, place it again when you no longer need lenders to see your credit.
- apply for a job, rent an apartment, or buy insurance. The freeze doesn't apply to these actions, so you don't need to lift it.
Even with a credit freeze, a thief can make charges on your existing accounts. You still need to monitor your bank, credit card, and insurance statements for charges or changes you didn’t authorize.
To place a credit freeze on your credit report, contact each of the three nationwide credit bureaus:
Equifax
Equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services
1-800-685-1111
Experian
1-888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742)
TransUnion
1-888-909-8872
If you manage a freeze online or by phone, the credit bureaus must place the freeze within one business day and lift it within one hour. If you make the request by mail, the credit bureau must place or lift the freeze within three business days. Check each credit bureau’s website to find out how to mail a request. Remember that you have to contact all three bureaus. For more on credit freezes, read What To Know About Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts.
Monitor your credit report
Because your credit report affects your ability to get loans, jobs, apartments, and more, be sure there aren’t mistakes, and that no one has been misusing your personal information. Here are several ways to monitor your credit report:
- Request your free credit reports and review them to make sure there are no problems or mistakes. Look for things like
- someone else’s information in your report
- information about you from a long time ago (especially more than seven years ago)
- information about your payment history or accounts that’s wrong
- accounts that you didn’t open yourself — a sign that someone may have stolen your identity
If you find something on your credit report that shouldn’t be there, take steps to fix it.
- Accept free credit monitoring a company offers after a data breach. If your information was exposed by a data breach, many companies will offer you free credit monitoring. Take advantage of it. This is an opportunity to get free help watching your credit report and making sure nobody is misusing your personal information. For more information on what to do if your information was exposed in a data breach, go to IdentityTheft.gov/DataBreach. If you’re active duty military or a member of the National Guard, use free military electronic credit monitoring services to protect your identity. To sign up, contact each of the credit bureaus.
- Ask questions before you sign up for credit monitoring. Credit monitoring services usually charge a monthly or annual fee to keep an eye on your credit report and let you know if they see anything suspicious. Find out more about credit monitoring in What To Know About Identity Theft and what questions to ask before you sign up. Since it’s free to check your credit report yourself, you’ll want to decide if a paid service is worth it.
Whether you monitor your credit yourself, get free credit monitoring, or pay a company to do it for you, check it regularly to avoid any surprises.
Fixing mistakes in your credit report
If you find mistakes on your credit report, both the credit bureau and the person, company, or organization that put the wrong information there are responsible for correcting it. But there are steps you need to take first:
- If your credit report has mistakes, but you haven’t experienced identity theft: First, tell the credit bureau, in writing, what information you think is inaccurate. Include copies of any documents that support your position. The credit bureau must investigate your claim. It also has to contact the business that put the information on your report. For example, if that wrong information has to do with your cell phone bill, the credit bureau will contact the phone company that reported the information. If that phone company finds that the information was, in fact, inaccurate, it must tell all three credit bureaus to correct your file.
Second, contact the company that reported the wrong information to the credit bureau. Do this in writing. Tell them that you’re disputing an item in your credit report. Get more information and sample dispute letters.
- If your credit report has errors due to identity theft: Block those charges from appearing on your credit report. Start at IdentityTheft.gov, an FTC website that will give you a personal recovery plan that walks through each step. It will also give you an Identity Theft Report that you can use to show that debts coming from identity theft are not yours.
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