You know that lenders evaluate your credit reports and scores before approving you – or determining your interest rate. But did you know your credit reports also drive the cost of your insurance premiums?

While most people are not “fluent” in credit, your lenders are. To make informed credit decisions, you need to be able to decipher what’s on your reports and understand what your credit scores are telling lenders about you – and why.

Credit accounts in collection are serious, and when listed on your credit reports, often have long-term, harmful impacts on your scores.

There’s nothing more awkward than having to initiate a deeply personal conversation with a life partner, significant other or family member. And few topics are as anxiety-provoking as money, debt and credit scores.

As a victim of a disaster, you are hit with the devastating realities of finding shelter, food and transportation, as well as dealing with time …

The journey to optimizing your credit health takes preparation and persistence. It starts with taking a hard look at where you stand and determining where you’d like to land.

The new year is an ideal time to get your credit scores in order. Set several “mini resolutions” that will keep you moving forward. Try these to get you started.

Tracking down your credit reports is the easy part. Trying to navigate your way through the sections, figure out what to focus on and decode …

Only organizations with a legitimate business reason – and anyone who has your written consent – can check your credit. Understanding the what, when and how of credit inquiries is an important part of protecting your credit scores.

Thanks to the U.S. Congress, placing or removing a Credit Freeze from consumer credit reports will be free for everyone. The federal legislation also calls for TransUnion®, Equifax® and Experian® to expedite consumer freeze requests.

Consumers will see certain negative information that can impact their scores scrubbed from their credit reports if the nation’s three credit reporting agencies can’t comply with more stringent reporting rules that must be fully implemented by June 2018.

Starting in April, the three major credit reporting agencies will remove tax liens from all consumer credit reports, which could mean a boost in scores for some consumers. TransUnion, Experian and Equifax are taking this step because of gaps in the information they receive on tax liens.