 TITLE: Why Do I Have So Many Credit Scores? CONTENT: Why Are There so Many Different Credit Scores?\n----------------------------------------------\nThe world of credit scores can be complicated and hard to follow. Couple that with the importance of credit scores—frequently touted as magical numbers that serve as the key to your financial life—and you can work yourself into a tailspin trying to access them, decipher them and, most important, figure out how to get the most out of them.\nThe key is not to get hung up on any one credit score. Instead, it's more important to look at the range your credit score falls in, the variety of scores out there, and the principles used to create them. Credit scores are derived from complex mathematical formulas that look at the information in your credit reports and generate a number designed to communicate the likelihood that you're going to pay your bills on time.\nDifferent credit scoring models weigh this information slightly differently, which is why we each have so many scores. The existence of multiple credit scores allows lenders to develop scores to address specific needs, such as consumers who don't have a deep credit history. We'll explain more about how credit scores work a little bit later in the article.\nFor this story, I checked nine different places for my credit score, which I was able to pull either for free or a small fee.\nThe result? Twelve different scores (two services offered me multiple scores based on information from different credit bureaus). There were only two numbers that appeared more than once; the rest of the scores were all unique. Right now, if you asked me what my credit score is, I could truthfully tell you it's 777. I could also say 745. Both numbers are correct. END