There’s a lot to know about how credit scores impact the way the average person goes about their day-to-day life. Whether you’re signing up for your first credit card or looking to apply for a mortgage, your credit score plays a huge role in determining whether you’ll be able to achieve some of your financial goals. 

Something just as important – and a term as equally thrown around – is a credit report. Your credit report determines how much interest you’ll have to pay back on loans, credit cards, and mortgages and whether you’ll be approved for them in the first place. 

Credit scores and reports as we know them have only been around for a few decades but are part of a long history of merchants, lenders, and decision engines. Here, Provenir explores when credit scores were invented, how they’re calculated, and how consumer credit reporting works, so you can know more about your money. 

Read on for your no-nonsense guide to all things credit.