In order to find out what your credit standing is, you need a Free Credit Report - no denying that. But the word FREE seems to get up my nose a bit. In order to, er, order you have to insert your Credit Card - daft, if the service is at No Cost! Yes, you do get a 30 day FREE trial of theirsystem, but Heaven forbid if you don't cancel before the 30 days are out. If you did forget then it's curtains and your Credit Balance will be bigger.This to me seems rather odd. And something that I find a little unfair. If people are checking their credit file then it is to get a very clear picture of their credit standing. And then they are offered the Score. This is the most essential element of Credit Analysis, but is that bit FREE - not on your debit card!Every time you make a credit application, the creditgrantor uses the information at hand to decide whether to grant you credit or not - in essence to approve or decline your application. This can only happen if a certain score is obtained, or higher. How do they 'the credit providers' arrive at this score, they're not telling.Now, don't get me wrong, the Credit Score is an essential tool to live with in this day and age. Especially for families caught in circumstances beyond their control like Hurricane Katrina or some other natural or business mishap. These people need to access funds fast but do the credit agencies have to make so much money in such horrid periods. Maybe I'm jaded after my exposure to such ruthless tactics. Maybe not'So back to the Score. Scores are based in essence on numerous variables. These are numbers in flux according to the consumers spending habits and can change on a day to day basis. This makes the 30 day FREE trial even more perplexing as you need to see the figures changing as you improve your credit and the agencies don't respond with much speed. Checkout CreditExpert to see how this system works. Do not forget to cancel once you have your reports.Some report / score optimisation specialists believe that a consumer can be more secure by simply being informed of being analysed that they can be high risk, and what they can do to prevent this. This tactic again promotes the Credit Reporting agencies and can have an unhealthy impact on the overall score. Anyway, to enable access to your score you have to pay extra and this again makes the UnfairFree Credit Report all the more obvious.Did you know that three figures in your Credit Score could help you save thousands in high-rates and monthly payments. Credit providers are using Scores almost exclusively to give consumers the green light. This affects Credit Cards, Lines of Credit, Loans and Mortgages. This is also a quick way to work out who to offer the low-rate loans to.All the information about you and your credit experiences such as payment profile, types of bank accounts, any late payments, accounts in default, outstanding debts, how long they've been outstanding is all collected together and held on the agencies servers ready to be accessed by another credit offerer. Consumers with high scores are the ones that get the better loans, credit cards and mortgages (some high scores can also result in lower insurance payments.)Anyone thinking of ordering their FREE Credit Report should be careful and be aware that their are possible risks. Consumers with a great or high score can find it all too easy to expand their lines of credit or store cards. The opposite is also true, so proceed with CARE.If you take out the Free Credit Report you don't have to buy any of the additional features, but just be aware that the Credit Score is the most important section - and this is NEVER FREE! Without it your report is in essence useless.With all this said, "How do you go about Improving your Credit Score?" First thing - this sounds crazy - get your Credit File. Regardless of whether you see it as Fair or Not, you need it. You need a complete breakdown of your history including: All credit reports Experian & Equifaxplus all credit scores.There is only Experian that will give you On Line Access in seconds but, for reasons only known to them, Equifaxwill only do the letter and delivery thing. Next, get theCredit Repair Letters from my site (they really are FREE)follow the steps and take the necessary action - it's that simple. You are minutes away from improving your Credit and getting those low-rate Mortgages and Loans.