Know What's on Your Credit Report Your credit rating is like a financial report card, which creditors use when assessing your credit-worthiness.

Start building a healthy credit rating now – being offered a job, mortgages and loans may be affected by your credit history. Today you usually can't even rent an apartment without your Landlord doing a thorough check of your credit.

The truth behind your credit bureau

Your personal credit bureau is a record of what you have borrowed and how you have paid it back. It includes information about how you pay your bills, like phone and hydro. In Canada, two primary national credit agencies -- TransUnion and Equifax -- collect and compile your credit information and distribute it to all potential lenders, like Banks. Their reports help lenders determine whether or not you are a credit risk.

This means, for example, that if you apply for a line of credit with a CIBC Branch in Vancouver, and have a VISA from a Scotiabank branch in Toronto, the CIBC Branch in Vancouver will be able to review your repayment history on your Scotiabank VISA from Toronto.

How to Get Straight A's

Use your credit wisely. Be sure to have a strategy for paying back what you owe. Here are some useful tips:

• Make sure you always pay your bills by the due date -- if not the full amount, at least the minimum amount owed.
• Notify any creditors of your new address as soon as you move. You still owe the money on your old cable bill even though you are living in a new place.
• Take advantage of pre-authorized debits: these can help you by automatically making your monthly payments, so you don't forget.
• Never lend your credit card to anyone else.
• Save receipts from your purchases and match them up against your credit card bill, when it arrives each month, in order to help keep track of what you are spending.

If there is a problem

You should tell the creditors right away if you experience a problem making a payment. Don't hide from the problem - it can only get worse. Creditors usually help you find a solution to the problem before they contact the credit bureau, but if they don't hear from you, they can't help you.

Take good care of your credit rating and it will take care of you.