From Money Crashers:

When it comes to your credit, it's important to know how you stack up. Do you have good credit? Excellent credit? Poor credit? How can you find out?

In most cases, the easiest way to determine the health of your credit is to look at your credit score, a numerical value that reflects a mathematical analysis of your debt, your payment history, the existence of liens or other judgments, and other statistical data collected by the credit bureaus. In other words, your credit score is the compact, simplified version of your entire credit history, all rolled up into one tidy three-digit number.

The importance of having good credit can't be understated. From helping you get a loan to qualifying you for a great job, good credit simply makes life easier and less expensive.

In the eyes of lenders, employers, insurance agents, and a host of other people and entities, your credit score...

Read full article...

More on credit:

Forget mortgages... This could be the next HUGE bank scandal

Shocker: Facebook and other "social networks" could damage your credit score

Must-see charts could tell the real story about yesterday's astonishing consumer credit numbers