Most people know their golf score and blood pressure, but few know their own credit score. This is your most important stat, and directly controls how high an interest rate you'll pay on your car loan. If you show up at a dealer without seeing your credit report, you might as well give them your checkbook. A car dealer should never know more about your credit than you do. Besides, you might find an error in your report preventing you from getting a loan. A common scam is the dealer calls 3 weeks after the sale to say "financing fell through, we need more cash", and they blame some issue on your credit history. They already planned this scam when you bought the car and they printed your credit report. Most sites give your report with score for $12-$15, be sure to add the credit score option, this is very important. You can get your credit report online from Equifax, Qspace, or TrueCredit.. Be sure to do that first, most people don't know what's on their credit report, or have never seen it, yet the car dealers have! The only time you get a free credit report is if you're turned down for credit. So make sure that you know your score BEFORE they do.
