Estimate Your Credit Score For Free

It's important to know your credit score. Without it, you never know what lenders are thinking about your credit history or just how much those 90-day late payments affected your credit score until you make a credit or loan application.

I advocate purchasing your actual FICO score a few months before applying for major loans and credit cards. That way you know where you stand and have time to make improvements. On the other hand, if you're not planning to make any credit applications in the near future, you can save the $9.00 and use a FICO score estimator to gauge your FICO score.

Using an estimator will give you a general idea of where your FICO score falls based on your answers to certain questions. You can use this estimate to focus on improving your score.

Remember, FICO scores range from 300-850 and higher scores are better. A score below 620 is considered subprime and, if approved, it's usually at a higher interest rate.

More on Credit Scores:
15 Credit Score Killers | Your Credit Score Calculation