With more and more people in debt and missing payments on loans or defaulting on loans, lenders are becoming ever more wary about whom they loan money to. This has made credit scores and reports even more important. A poor credit report or score can all but shatter your chances of getting a loan from a prime institution with lower rates.

What your credit report includes is information on any credit account balances you have, dates of all the credit cards you possess, mortgage payments and student loans, and any other form of loan. Other information may be included as well, depending on the scope of your financial history. Your report will also detail who has recently requested a copy of it. This information is gathered and sold to lenders by three major collectors, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

As important as these documents are, you need to ensure first and foremost that the information contained on it is correct and up-to-date. If there are errors on your report, they are in all likelihood errors that hurt your score. We're not lucky enough to have stats show up on our reports saying we have had a line of credit for years with no problems when in fact we didn't, but there are plenty of times when old defaults or other errors will exist on it. Likewise, when considering data that may be missing, it's unlikely the data on a card in poor standing will be missing from the report, but a card that's been in good standing may very well be. So you need to look at both what's on there, and also at what may be missing.

Your report will not only determine your ability to get future lines of credit, but may also be required of some employers offered bondable positions, jobs which deal with money in some capacity. A history of taking lines of credit and running for the border will not help your chances of landing such a job.

To get a copy of your report, you can head to the websites of any of the three major credit data collectors. Each of these companies is required to supply a free report yearly, as well as additional reports under certain circumstances, such as in the case of identity theft. Any third party sites which claim to offer credit reports should probably be avoided, especially as you'll need to supply them with your SSN to access them, and this is extremely dangerous information to give to random sites. If you've already received your free yearly report, you'll need to pay a fee in the area of $10 to get a new, updated one.

If you're expecting to find your credit score on these reports, you won't find it. Your score is based off the information in these reports, but the actual score will not show up on these documents. The credit score must be purchased separately from each company, and you do not get a free yearly copy of it. This will cost you an additional $6-$8.

With these information in hand, you should be able to at least confirm that everything contained in the report is true like credit cards and other debt, and that you're not getting short changed. In this tough credit world, you'll need these assurances to have any hope.