In today's information age, credit reports and credit scores are a vital part of everyone's life, your credit report provides creditors and lenders key information about your credit history, it is used to help them get a good picture of your borrowing and repaying habits in the past. Along with listing your full credit and debt repayment history, your credit report also contains information on any past bankruptcies, foreclosures, anything of that sort. And like a resume, your credit report can influence whether you will receive what you are applying for from a creditor, insurer or lender.

Your credit score can also be very helpful to potential lenders by giving them a simple 3 digit number summarizing your overall credit worthiness. And of course, the higher your credit score, the better.

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Most lending institutions will look at both your report and score before approving your application. After they have looked over your creditreport, if everything looks good there, then your score is often what determines what interest rate and terms they will give you on the credit you are applying for.