Wells Fargo has a limited-time offer for customers where they’ll give you a free credit score and free credit report through November 16, 2014. Unfortunately, the score you get is not your real FICO score. It is a made up score calculated with the bank’s own proprietary scoring model.

You are about to get married, and your Fiance’s FICO Score is 200 points lower than yours. Once you wed, your scores will be combined, and your mate’s low score will pull yours down.

When it comes to retail store credit cards, the advantages are often outweighed by the disadvantages. However, the best store credit cards offer some exceptions to the status quo. Some come with rewards and benefits worth pursuing, if you shop a lot at their stores.

The Strategy –to lower credit utilization, make an extra credit card payment mid-month, either estimating what you owe or checking your current balance online.

If you have friends who work at banks, especially if they are in lending, you might be tempted to ask them to check your credit score for free.