BOOST YOUR CREDIT SCORE

Make these moves to improve your credit health—and push your score to the top of the charts.

- ELLA VINCENT

If you have stellar credit, it opens a lot of doors in your financial life.

It can help you qualify for credit cards and loans and snag the lowest interest rate on them. Landlords may consider your credit before offering you an apartment. Your credit health may affect your home and auto insurance premiums, too.

Your credit score is a three-digit number that gauges how well you're managing your credit. FICO and VantageScore are the two primary companies that create credit scores, with lenders more commonly checking FICO scores before approving an application. Standard score models from both companies operate on a scale of 300 to 850; a score of 740 to 799 is typically considered very good, and a score of 800 or higher is deemed excellent.

There are plenty of free sources to check your score. Credit-reporting company Experian, for example, provides a FICO score after you enroll at experian.com/credit/credit-score, and TransUnion, another credit-reporting company, offers a credit score from VantageScore at transunion.com/free-credit-score. Your bank or credit card issuer may provide free score updates as well.

Take the steps below to give your credit score a lift—and to unlock the best terms on loans, insurance and more.