Your credit score is an important number. It's how creditor and lenders quickly decide if you are creditworthy. Find out which actions hurt your credit score so you can stay away from them.

It's easy to make mistakes when it comes to your credit. Some mistakes are so detrimental; you'd never want to appear on your credit report. Since future creditors and lenders use your credit report to make decisions about you, there are some things you'd never want to show up on your report.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) made it possible for you to get a free copy of your credit report. Through FACTA you can order a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion - each year. You should take advantage of this privilege by ordering your credit report and using it to monitor your credit history.

Your credit score is a numerical representation of the information that's in your credit report. Think of it as a GPA for your credit. It's a good idea to know your credit score, especially if you plan to apply for credit cards or loans. You can use a credit score estimator like the one found at myFICO.com to estimate your credit score.

Your credit report contains a wealth of information about your financial actions. If you have credit or loan accounts, those accounts, and how you pay them, are included in your credit report. It's important to review your credit report at least once a year so you know what your creditors are saying about you.

If you've ever purchased a three-in-one credit score, you might have noticed that your credit scores are different among the three credit bureaus. As if understanding your credit score wasn't difficult enough, having different credit scores makes it even tougher to understand. Here's a bit of an explanation.

Part of your credit score - 10% to be exact - considers the number of inquiries made for your credit report. Credit inquiries are placed on your credit report each time a business requests a copy of your report.

You know to get a physical checkup from the doctor once a year and a dental checkup twice a year, but just how often should you get a financial checkup? Just like a physical from the doctor reveals steps you should take to improve your health, a financial checkup helps you figure out how you can improve your finances. Checking your credit report is one way to decide what needs improvement.

Your credit report contains key information that identifies you and how you've paid your bills. Whenever you make a credit-based application, your credit report is viewed to help make a decision. That's one of the reasons that it's so important for you to check your credit report. If, for some reason, your information is reported incorrectly, it could cause you to be denied for services for which you would otherwise would have been approved.

This is a sample dispute letter that you can send to credit reporting agencies. Use this letter to request an update to or a deletion of inaccurate information on your credit report. Replace the italicized statements with your information.