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.