Well, the notion of credit for a job well done extends beyond your personal, academic, or professional achievements and into your financial life. In the financial sense, credit is an agreement between a lender, a bank, credit union, credit card issuer, utility company, or other institution that has a financial stake—and a borrower.

The three credit reporting bureaus deal with a substantial amount of information daily. As a result, mistakes can occur on your credit report. By requesting and reviewing the free annual credit reports from each of the credit reporting bureaus, you can be on the lookout for errors that may exist on your report.

When a couple is married, they often hold joint accounts, such as savings, credit cards and mortgages. This links their credit scores together. If you’ve just gone through a divorce, your credit may be in shambles. Sometimes, one partner will run up a huge credit card bill, deplete the equity in the home or otherwise try to wreak havoc with the credit score of the other party. It’s important to address this problem head on.

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.

A FICO Score is a brand of credit score — FICO stands for Fair Isaac Corporation and Fair Isaac is the company that developed the software program used by the credit bureaus to compile and calculate credit scores for U.S. consumers.