You know it's important to have a good credit score.
But you may not realize just how much money raising your score could save you.
"The truth is that there are very few things in life that are more expensive than having crummy credit," said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
If you have debt from a credit card, personal loan, car loan and a mortgage, you could save more than $22,000 over the lifetime of the credit and loans.
A recent report from LendingTree found that savings would happen if you boosted your credit score from fair which is a range of 580 to 669 to very good which is 740 to 799.
That $22,000 in savings comes out to $92 a month.
The report shows your mortgage is the thing you'll save the most on by increasing your credit score.
The reasoning behind that is because of how much interest we pay on mortgages.
Even a fraction of a percentage point off of your mortgage rate can mean big savings over time.
Schulz said to keep your credit score high, keep your balances as low as possible on your loans.
Also, make sure you are paying your bills on time every time and don't apply for too much credit too often.
Schulz said another thing you can do is make sure you're checking your credit report from the three major credit bureaus.
You can do that here.
"There are more mistakes and errors on credit reports in general than people realize, and having good credit is hard enough without somebody else's mistakes holding your score down unnecessarily," said Schulz.
If a scammer has your information and has opened accounts in your name, checking your credit report is where you'll find out about it too.
If you need to get something on your report fixed, report it to the credit bureaus, but expect them to take a few months to get it corrected.
