Your credit score may seem like a distant and abstract number that doesn't affect you very often. In fact, credit scores have a significant impact on your lifestyle. Your home, your vacations, even your dating life can be negatively impacted by a bad credit score.

Credit scores, which are managed by the Credit Bureau (Singapore) Pte Ltd (CBS), are used by financial institutions as a benchmarks to determine the reliability of an individual to repay his or her debts. This four-digit number that ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 (AA rating at 2,000 being the best), is a consolidation of an individual’s credit history pooled together and aggregated across different banks, finance companies and other sources, such as bankruptcy records. As such, financial institutions rely on these credit scores to determine if they are willing to offer products to applicants.