Your credit record and who reads it

A credit record is a file about how you have handled borrowed money: whether bills were paid on time, how much of a card's limit is in use, how long the accounts have been open. A score is a number made from that file.

Lenders, landlords, and some employers read it before they ever meet you. It is free to read your own, once a year from each of the three companies that keep one, and most people never look.