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Order your free credit reports. Understand your credit report. Understand your credit score. Learn what goes into your credit score.

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Credit reporting agencies are required to give you a free copy of your credit report once a year, when you request it. You'll need to go to www.annualcreditreport.com to order the reports. The credit report includes a credit score and your credit history. Businesses and lenders use this to decide whether or not to offer you credit and what interest they'll charge. You can order the free reports (from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) all at the same time or at different times throughout the year. Most of the information is the same, so staggering your reports throughout the year will help you follow the progress of your credit repair efforts. The report is made of of your credit history and other financial information. It's used to create your credit score, which is a number. The annual free credit reports won't give you a score, they'll just provide you the information that goes into calculating the score. This is the information you'll get with your credit report:  Identifying information: your name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, and employment information. (This isn't used to calculate your score, but make sure it's correct; if not, bad information could be tied to your account.) Credit Accounts: reports from banks, financial institutions, and businesses about the type of account you have, your credit limit, the balance, and payment history Credit Inquiries: history of everyone who's asked for your report in the past 2 years, whenever you've asked for credit. Public Records and Collections: state and county court records that include: bankruptcies, enclosures, lawsuits, wage attachments, property liens, and judgments. This number, ranging from 300 to 850, represents your creditworthiness. Software developed by FICO and used by the credit reporting agencies determines the score. The scores between agencies should be similar, but there may be differences. It's important to make sure that your information is correct for each reporting agency. Higher scores are considered lower credit risk, but each lender decides how it uses the credit score. For example, Lender A might be comfortable making a loan to a borrower with a credit score of 650 while Lender B requires a score of 700 for an extension of credit at similar terms. Scores are calculated by five weighted factors:  Payment history: This includes late payments, the number of accounts with a record of late payments, and negative legal actions such as bankruptcy. This makes up 35% of the final score. Accounts owed: These include the type of accounts, account balances, total amount owed, the ratio of debt to available credit and the percentage of remaining installment debt. This makes up 30% of the final score. Length of credit history: This looks at the age of your oldest and youngest credit account, the average age of all credit accounts, and your use of the individual accounts. This makes up 15% of the final score. Types of credit: How and where you received credit in the past makes up 10% of the final score. New Credit: Several applications for new credit can reflect poorly on your credit score. If you keep the requests within a 30-day period, the score is not affected. New credit counts for 10% of your final score.