The 15-Minute Tip: Who's Watching?

Sure, the better your credit score the easier (and cheaper) it is to borrow. But more than ever, your credit score is becoming your life's little report card.

Thinking of refinancing your house, buying a car or signing up for a new credit card? You bet they'll check your score. You'll get favorable terms only if you pass muster -- if you get the loan at all. No surprise there. You know cleaner reports and better scores are required these days.

Thinking of refinancing your house, buying a car or signing up for a new credit card? You bet they'll check your score. You'll get favorable terms only if you pass muster -- if you get the loan at all. No surprise there. You know cleaner reports and better scores are required these days.

So you may be thinking "My mortgage is where I want it, and I don't really need to borrow for anything right now. So my score really doesn't matter that much."

Wrong. It turns out that credit scores are being monitored far and wide as an indicator of your overall dependability and financial prudence. In fact, it's become an outright measure of character.

Thus -- even if you aren't in the credit market right now -- it's worth 15 minutes to check your credit report. And don't forget your spouse's too.

Just how much your score is used for "other" things was brought home by a recent interview with credit guru and Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren on NPR's Fresh Air. I decided to do some digging.

The first thing I found out, going beyond Warren's interview, is that 87% of all credit reports have an error. Worse, according to the Consumer Federation of America, some 31% have an error that could reduce a credit score by 50 points or more. Yikes.

Who's Watching?

Next, a list folks (besides creditors) keeping an eye on you:

• Employers. Credit-score use by employers is growing rapidly; up to 70% of all employers according to Warren. One driving factor is the declining use of references, which have become more vulnerable to libel suits and thus watered down to the point of worthlessness.
• Insurance companies. It's widely known that insurance companies, especially auto insurers, use your score. Today, larger insurers are setting up special managed risk subsidiaries to take on preferred clients. With too low a score you may not qualify and pay hundreds more.
• Landlords. Renters of apartments or homes or even vacation homes may be checked not only for ability to pay but for overall dependability and character.
• Utilities. You'll get your gas or electricity, but a lower score will force higher deposits.
• Cell-phone plans. The lowest-rate plans advertised just might not be available if your score doesn't check out.

  What to Do

  The actions are pretty clear -- initially, anyway. First, make a habit of examining your credit report occasionally. By law you're entitled to one free check a year from each of the three national bureaus. But that's just the credit report, not the score; you'll have to pay $8 to $13 for the actual number.

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  Then, current law and practice makes fixing any fixable blemish your problem best solved by dealing with the credit reporting agency in writing. Agencies are required by law to investigate, but they don't have to change the entry. You'll have to be precise and persistent, but it does work.

  I've said it often -- while debt is a liability, credit is an asset to be carefully managed. That's becoming more true as credit becomes a metric of your character.