These People Didn’t Expect to Check Their Credit in Public. Here’s What Happened

Do you know how much of your available credit you’re using?

Be honest: Do you know what your “available credit” even is?

One more question: Do you know how your credit usage impacts your credit score?

We hit the streets to ask real people questions like these on camera, and guess what…

Not everyone knows the answers — people who have a credit card don’t even know the answers. Most Americans don’t know the effect that common actions can have on their credit score.

In fact, only 9% of Americans are even aware they have multiple credit scores from several reporting bureaus.

Why does any of it matter?

If you understand the common factors affecting your credit score — like credit usage, payment history and debt — you’ll be better equipped to work on improving it.

So we talked to people on the street and helped them find their credit score using the Credit Sesame app.

To be fair, I checked my own score, too — and learned it was a scant 528. Yikes.

But as you’ll see in the video, the app also offers some helpful info.

It told us exactly what was impacting our scores and gave us each personalized action steps to start working on improving them.