How to get your FICO score?

Many lenders rely very heavily on a credit score to determine the amount of risk associated with lending you money and adjust their interest rates accordingly. The availability of FICO scores to consumers, along with online credit reports, means you have new ways to check on your financial status -- and to protect or improve it.

Checking your credit score provides a way to explore ways to improve your credit score to save you money paid in interest. When you get your score, you'll also get an explanation of your score and ways you can improve it. At myFico.com, you also gain access to a feature that lets you create hypothetical situations, such as paying off a particular debt or paying credit card bills on time, etc., and see how such actions will affect your score.

You can order your FICO Score from the following service:

		Equifax FICO Credit Score

Three bureau credit scores

You'll want to see the scores from each of the credit bureaus because not all lenders report your payment history to the same bureaus. That means scores usually are different at each one. You can check your credit score at the three national credit bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian) by ordering a report at , the Web site for Fair Isaac Corp., which developed the industry-standard FICO credit score.

When you order a three bureau credit score, the score is compiled from your credit reports; therefore you can make sure all three are correct. Also, this format organizes credit information from each company side by side so it's easy to read.