There are many people interested in looking at your credit score or more importantly your credit history. A good score shows you as a person who diligently pays your debts when they fall due and a poor score will reflect badly on you and lenders may well decide that you should have to pay a premium in the interest rates, or worse still, they may be reluctant to loan money to you at all.

The world, Americans included, is suffering from a serious disease – the disease of excessive debt. The problem has been an availability of very cheap credit in recent times, and no real regulation on who can or cannot take on debt. It has meant that many people have taken out credit cards and loans that [...]