Credit scores typically range between 300 to 850, and a surprising number of things in your life depend on where your score falls in that range. Certainly, your credit score influences your ability to get a credit card or get approved for a new loan. However, your credit score also influences how much you’ll pay for car insurance, whether you’ll get approved for a cell phone, and it’s even considered when you apply for a job or for a rental.

If you have bad credit, one of the fastest ways to improve your credit score is to check your credit report for errors. Statistically speaking, 75% of credit reports contain errors, and some of these can easily pull down your credit score.

It’s well known that carrying too much credit card debt or missing credit card payments will hurt one’s credit score. Few people, however, are aware that credit cards also can be a great way to begin to build a credit history.

Credit scores have always been important, but today, more than ever, your credit scores rule your financial destiny. With tightened lending practices and stricter underwriting rules, paying attention to your credit score is no longer simply a choice, it’s a necessity.

What a difference a few hundred years make. Like our forebears of yesteryear, we hold certain truths to be self-evident: that we’re all endowed with certain unalienable rights and that all men (and women) are created equal—as long as our credit score meets a certain minimum benchmark.