Q: What is the difference between a credit report and credit score?
A credit report is a snapshot of your credit history. It has information such as your
current and previous addresses, credit cards you have, loans, and other related information.
This is what the 3 nationwide consumer credit reporting companies
(Equifax,
Experian, and
TransUnion)
use to track and determine your credit score. You can find an excellent example of a
credit report here. You can get a free copy of your credit report
from Annual Credit Report.
A credit score is a numerical value between
300(lowest) and 850(highest) that businesses use to determine the risk of doing
business with you. For example, if you want to get a mortgage or car loan, this
will play a major role in determining if you will get the loan and what rate. It's
also becoming more common for employers to get your credit score when doing background checks.
You can find an excellent example of a
credit score here.
This is one of the most important things you have to protect, a bad credit score
can negatively impact you and your family. Coming soon we will publish a paper
on how to protect both your identity and credit score.
