You’ve been laid off from your job. The ensuing drop in your income could hurt your FICO score.

If you’ve been piggybacking on someones credit card as an authorized user for a while, you may wonder if you should bother to get your own credit card. It isn’t necessarily required, but it’s a good idea. Read on to find out what it means to be an authorized user and why you should apply for your own credit card when you can.

FHA has a two-tier credit score system for insuring loans. First-tier loans require a minimum down payment of 3.5 percent, while second-tier loans require at least 10 percent. The first tier includes those with FICO scores of 580 or above, while the second tier includes those between 500 and 579. FHA does not insure loans with anything below a 500 credit score.

Credit Sesame is a Website that helps people manage their credit — its offering users free credit monitoring, a service that the big three credit bureaus offer for a fee. However, Credit Sesame monitors information from a single credit bureau — Experian.

If you’ve ever tried to get your credit score for free, you know that there’s no such thing as a truly free credit score. You’re forced to enter your credit card information and sign up for a free trial of a service, just so you can forget to cancel and get charged for a service you don’t want. Though you can get a free credit report easily with no credit card, one popular website, Credit Karma, allows you to retrieve your credit score without providing any payment information.