Your credit score is an important part of your financial life. Here’s how to keep an eye on it for free.

Your credit score can make a huge difference in your financial life. Whether it’s getting a mortgage, taking out a credit card, or trying to land a new job or place to live, your credit score could make or break your application. 

“Good credit unlocks financial opportunities, and you won’t know what options are available to you unless you are familiar with your credit report and credit score,” says Rod Griffin, a senior director at Experian.

Checking your credit score is an important step in monitoring your financial health. In fact, before you apply for any type of credit—from a credit card to an auto loan to a mortgage—you should check your credit score so you will know exactly what lenders will see. There are plenty of ways to check your score for free. And no, your score won’t drop if you check it. 

What is a credit score?

A credit score is a three-digit number, typically ranging from 300 to 850, based on your credit report. While there are many different credit scoring models, two stand out among the rest: FICO and VantageScore.

While FICO is the best known, lenders may use either or both. “No score holds more weight or authority over any other,” Griffin says. “They are just different scores designed to predict risk accurately for that lender or type of lending.” 

No matter what the particular model, your credit report will be largely made up of your payment history and how much you owe. However, it also includes how many different types of credit you use, any new credit (like recent loan or credit card applications), and the length of your credit history. 

FICO and Vantage weigh each component differently, which is why you might see different scores based on those different models. For instance, FICO weighs credit utilization—the proportion of available credit you use—at 30% of your total credit score while VantageScore weighs it at 20%.

What does your credit score mean?

“Credit scores and credit reports are like report cards,” says Kaeshier Fernandez, a financial counselor at Redstone Federal Credit Union in Huntsville, Ala. “If a credit report is a snapshot in time of all of your borrowing history, then a credit score is like your grade on how well you handle credit.”

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This article was originally published on The Tape by The Wall Street Journal on October 16, 2022.