A credit report contains information on where you work and live, how you pay your bills, and whether you've been sued, arrested, or filed for bankruptcy. Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) gather this information and sell it to creditors, employers, insurers, and others. The most common type of CRA is the credit bureau.

FICO And VantageScore

Historically, FICO has been the most well-known credit scoring system. The information in your credit report is used to calculate your FICO credit score, a number generally between 300 and 850 that rates how risky a borrower you are. The higher your score, the less risk you pose to creditors. Your FICO score is available from www.myfico.com for a fee. Free credit reports do not contain your credit score. You may purchase your credit score by contacting the credit bureaus. All three credit bureaus also offer a 3-in-1 service so you don't have to contact each bureau separately.

VantageScore is a new scoring technique, the first one that was developed collaboratively by the three credit reporting companies. This model allows for a more predictive score for consumers, even for those with limited credit histories, reducing the need for creditors to manually review credit information. VantageScore features a common score range of 501-990 (higher scores represent lower likelihood of risk). A key benefit of VantageScore is that as long as the three major credit bureaus have the same information regarding your credit history, you will receive the same score from each of them. A different score alerts you that there are discrepancies in your report.