This is an interesting topic for me to write. I am almost obsessed with my credit score.  I check my latest score every now and then, if not every week. In 2016, the average credit score was 699. This is in the “good” range. But what is considered a bad credit score?

While there are different credit tiers we all know about, do they mean you don’t qualify for loans, credit cards, a house, a car, and other necessities? It’s important you know what your credit score means to your financial health.

There are many reasons that people fall into debt. It could be a job loss, a sudden illness or the mishandling of money. Unfortunately, once you get overwhelmed with your debt it can become difficult to make your monthly payments on time.

What usually follows are a few late payments and then a few missed payments. This can present quite a challenge to restore your good name. The potential cost of having bad credit can be huge unless you follow these steps to recover from bad credit.

Trying to gain better control over your finances can be a great goal to have. While all the different factors that affect how you save, borrow, and make money can seem complex when you’re starting out, you can easily become well educated about your finances by breaking up the knowledge you need into smaller chunks.

Understanding your credit score can be a great place to start. Having better credit can come with a huge set of advantages that can potentially help improve all of your finances. Here are the basics of what your credit score means and how you can improve it if needed.

This is a guest post from one of the readers, who wants to be anonymous.

Having a good credit score wasn’t always on the top of my priority list when I was in my early 20s. I never had an immaculate score, but it also wasn’t too shabby. I could have access to almost any type of financing: credit cards, car loans, and even a mortgage. I always paid my bills on time but I typically carried over some of the balance to the next month.

Knowing your credit score is very important as it greatly affects your financial ability, but for some reason no regulation exists that gives you the right to know it for free. Your credit score affects the interest rate you get when applying for a loan or even affect your eligibility for one. It also affects your fees why applying for financial services such as credit cards. Even your housing association, where you rent or your employer might want to verify your credit report and credit score. For Americans, having a good credit score makes things less costlier and more attainable.

Your credit report, which contains a lot of information about you and your financial whereabouts and it even required to calculate your credit score, is available for free according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act which allows you to order a credit report once per year from all 3 of the nation’s credit reporting companies (TransUnion Experian and Equifax). Each company uses a different method of calculating your credit score and each compiles its own credit report.

If you are one of the millions of Brits with a ‘poor’ credit rating, life can be very frustrating.  Things such as new mobile phones and mortgages require a certain degree of credit worthiness, and our credit rating has far-reaching consequences for our every day lives.  Some employers even credit check you when you apply for a job with them.

So if you keep getting rejected for credit, it can feel like you’ll never get the phone, the job or even the house you want.  But there are things you can do to help repair your credit score.