Have you seen those ads that push you to get a supposedly free credit report? The catch is that they also enroll you in a subscription service where you pay as much as $200/annually to have your credit monitored!

Under federal law, you are allowed one free credit report every year from each of the three main credit-reporting agencies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Additional copies are available if your identity is compromised. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to get your free credit reports. No strings attached!

Meanwhile, you can also get a free non-FICO credit score from Quizzle.com, CreditKarma.com or Credit.com. These services will try to sell you certain mortgage and financial services, but you can decline their pitches and get free access to your score.

One nuance that's important to understand: Each credit bureau's report will contain three credit scores. For example, if you get your Experian report, it will have a made-up score; the true FICO score used by most lenders; and a Vantage score.

So there is no single credit score for people. What's important is to know where you rank on a scale as a credit risk compared to other people.