Start by doing a credit checkup — you can monitor your credit yourself by requesting a free report once a year from each of the credit bureaus through www.annualcreditreport.com but the free report won’t include your credit score, you’ll pay about $8 to get the credit bureau’s proprietary number.

Any company, organization, or individual with a “legitimate business need” can request to see your credit history, and these requests are known as credit inquiries. They are divided into two categories called hard and soft inquiries — hard inquiries will affect your credit history and credit score while soft inquiries will not.

Today having good credit reflected in your credit report is important in every financial situation you find yourself in as you probably know and knowing a few tips about credit repair can solve a lot of your credit problems. In our world credit determines just how much interest you’ll end up paying on your house, car, truck, etc.

Can’t make your monthly credit card payments. It is important to understand what you can do in order to avoid late charges, increased interest rates and avoid having your credit score lowered. Taking the appropriate action can increase your ability to make future payments.

Few financial figures are as important as a credit scores. The three-digit figure has a major impact on daily life — dictating what consumers can buy, how much credit they can obtain and even where they choose to reside.