This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Ordering a free copy of your credit report at least once a year is a good financial habit — it helps you spot any possible errors that can be damaging to your credit history. But if you really want to know what your credit is, you're going to need to order your credit score.

The score is a three-digit number that reflects, or summarizes, the quality of your credit report or credit history. (The higher your score, the better, of course.) And although it's not free, it's well worth the expense.

Companies of all types — lenders, employers, insurance companies, utilities and others — increasingly are relying on credit scores to determine whether they want to do business with you, whether they want to give you a loan or even whether to hire you.

Your credit score affects what you pay for homeowner, auto and life insurance coverage. It affects how much of a down payment you'll have to make on your next mortgage or auto loan. It also plays a role in the credit limit and interest rate on your credit cards.

"More and more companies want to look at your credit score," said home loan officer Al Bingham, author of The Road to 850: Proven Strategies for Increasing Your Credit Scores.

If you want to learn more about credit scores, a good place to start is MyFico.com, operated by credit-scoring company Fair Isaac & Co. Consumers can order their credit score from Fair Isaac for about $20. Your credit score comes with a detailed explanation of scores and what yours means.

Most people have scores that range from the 500s to 700s. In general, a credit score of 760 to 850 is considered excellent, Bingham said; 720 to 760 is above average; and 680 to 720 is considered average. A score of 620 to 680 generally is considered below average, with anything below 620 deemed poor by most lenders.

Generally, the lower your credit score, the more you're going to pay for many types of insurance and the higher your rate will be on a variety of consumer loans.

For example, according to Fair Isaac, a consumer with a score from 760 to 850 may qualify for a mortgage loan at 4.5 percent and a monthly payment of $1,518. All things being equal, someone with a score in the 680-699 range would have to pay a higher rate, of nearly 4.9 percent, which would push the monthly payment to $1,590. Someone with a credit score of 620 to 639 would have to pay a rate as high as 6.1 percent, which would translate into a payment of more than $1,800.

Trying to improve your credit score? Bingham has some strategies:

• Focus on past-due accounts. Those with late payments are big factors that push your credit score lower, he said. Just bringing your accounts current, or working out a repayment plan, could boost your score.

• Pay down debt. Your credit score is based in part on the amount of credit you are using, compared with your total credit limits. For example, a consumer with a balance of $4,000 on credit cards and a combined credit limit of $10,000 is looked on more favorably than a consumer with a balance of $4,000 and a combined credit limit of $5,000, even though they both have the same balance.

• Don't necessarily close credit cards you aren't using. Doing so will decrease your combined credit limit and could lower your credit score. Credit card issuers these days are closing inactive accounts more quickly, so you may want to use any cards you have at least once a year to avoid having the account closed.

• Avoid quick-fix credit-repair companies, especially those that charge hefty up-front "application" fees. Many aren't worth the fees they charge. Instead consider one of Utah's many nonprofit counseling agencies. For a list of those approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, go to http://1.usa.gov/PtC5l.

Lesley Mitchell writes One Cheap Chick in daily blog form at blogs.sltrib.com/cheap. —

Get your free credit report

Get a free copy of your credit report by going to AnnualCreditReport.com. This site was set up by the nation's three main credit-reporting agencies — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — to comply with a federal law requiring them to provide consumers with one free report annually. That means you could go to this site every four months and get a free report from a different bureau. You can get your credit score from MyFico.com, which is operated by credit-scoring company Fair Isaac & Co. For about $20, you'll get your score and a detailed explanation of what it means to you.