Your credit score report can be affect by more than your available credit history. We talk about how credit cards, mortgages, car loans, and any type of loan that reports to all 3 credit bureaus will affect your credit score. We don’t always talk about utility companies and how they can have a negative impact on your credit report. Here are utility companies I like to consider non-creditors. In other words these companies don’t give you a line credit, they just provide a service.

Citi Free Credit Score will become the largest credit card issuer to provide free credit scores to their credit card customers. The bank will begin providing these scores on a monthly basis beginning in January 2015 and the scores will only be available online. Citi will provide the FICO credit score which is based on credit report information from Equifax.

So you have some extra money in your pocket and you’ve decided to pay off one of your credit card collections early. You know that credit scores are extremely important so your goal is to pay off the collection that will yield the most credit score improvement — the “FICO ROI” (return on investment).

Prepaid MasterCard is the easiest way to pay — just load one with funds and use it for all the things you use cash for such as shopping, bill payments, or everyday purchases. You can use MasterCard Prepaid cards wherever Debit MasterCard is accepted and get the added convenience that cash doesn’t offer.

The average American credit score is 678, but there is a range of credit scores that auto loan lenders will find acceptable. You can qualify for a auto loan with a low credit score, but you may need to seek alternative lending options to do so. In order to secure a auto loan with a traditional lender, you will need to be in the medium to low-risk credit range — this credit score range includes all scores more than 650.