In the world of personal finance, there is little more mysterious to the general public than the credit score. Credit scores seem suspicious and alien, imposed upon people by some judgemental external force. And while that’s not entirely untrue (if a bit dramatic), this is no reason to ignore your credit score. Your credit score is actually a very powerful thing, and it will have a lot of impact on your financial future. Here are a few things that credit scores do, as well as reasons why it might be worth your while to check out Lexington Law Reviews for credit repair.

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  • Credit Scores Determine How Much it Costs to Borrow Money. If you haven’t borrowed money before, you certainly will at some point in your life. Borrowing money isn’t free. Companies with money charge consumers for the privilege of using their money. They do this to make a profit, and also to make extra money just in case the borrower doesn’t pay back the loan. This is where the credit score comes in. If you are going to borrow money, the lender wants to know how much risk they’re going to carry by trusting you with their money. If you have a low score, it means that you might not pay them back, and they’re going to charge you a lot more than they would a person with a high credit score. For houses and cars and other big loans, this means you might be paying tens or even hundreds of thousands more than someone with a good credit score, over the course of your life.
  • Credit Scores Indicate Where You Are in Life. Credit scores send a lot of signals to people who might lend you money, like credit card companies. Whether or not they decide to give you a good deal is based on how stable they think you might be. If you’ve opened a lot of credit cards recently (and especially if you use a lot of your available credit), you will appear to creditors as someone who is very financially challenged, living off of credit cards. They might not issue you the credit card you want.
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  • Credit Scores May Come Up While You Are Looking for a Job. While it’s not legal for most employers to access your credit score, this has happened in the past many times and continues to do so in some places. While we certainly hope that this practice gets stomped out, it’s just another reason to make sure your credit score is high and dry.

There are other ways that your credit score can hurt or help you. If you want to lift yours out of of the depths, start by paying your bills on time, paying off as much debt as you possibly can, and not using more than 30% of any credit card’s credit limit. There are lots of other ways to boost a credit score. Just think all the time about how your spending and borrowing looks. Do you look like someone who is responsible with money or not? Your credit score will tell you.