1. Credit Scores
Credit scores are a very tricky thing. Its pretty simple to understand what
they mean, but its much more difficult to derive how they were calculated
and what is their importance. No one besides the founders of FICO actually
know how a credit score is calculated, but its easy to see the range of
situations in which a good credit score will be very beneficial to you, while a
low score will hurt you.

2. My FICO Credit Report
The initial idea of a credit score was developed by public company called
FICO. They aimed to create a standardized metric with which credit
institutions can judge whether or not to give you any credit, and what kind of
rate you will get. There are three agencies that you can order an official
credit report from. Although all these agencies, Equifax, TransUnion and
Experian, offer you a credit report, they will differ slightly amongst
themselves, because they use different information. You can only get a free
credit report from these agencies once a year

3. Other Credit Reporting Agencies
There are other agencies that sprouted up recently that offer a free credit
score and report at any point and as many times per year as you want.
Although these services are free, unlike the MyFICO agencies, they do not
have as up to date and correct information as the companies that aren’t free.
In some situations this isn’t a big deal, while in others it’s a huge deal. If all
your doing is monitoring you credit score to make sure it is slowly but surely
growing, then you can use one of the free services, but if you are trying to
figure out EXACTLY what your score is, so that you can get the absolute best
mortgage rate, it definitely is worth paying the fee to the MyFICO agencies.