You have 4 credit scores

This article reported that there are 4 credit scores on your creditworthiness.

You'll be best served by getting the credit score that your lenders are most likely to see.

1) FICO

Created by The Fair Isaac Corporation, your FICO score can range between 300 and 850 - the higher, the better.

You can buy your FICO scores directly from myFICO.com, the consumer division of FairIsaac. You can also get your FICO score based on your Equifax report either from Equifax's Web site or when you request your Equifax report through annualcreditreport.com.

Experian and TransUnion, however, do not sell FICO scores to consumers, only to lenders who request them.

2) VantageScore

Introduced last year by the three credit bureaus as a direct competitor to FICO. It is the default score sold to consumers by Experian and TransUnion, either through their Web sites or via annualcreditreport.com.

Your VantageScore can range between 501 and 990 - the higher the better. In addition, your score is assigned a letter grade (e.g., an "A" is for scores between 901 and 990; an "F" is for scores between 501 and 600).

3) TransUnion's TruCredit score

This is a proprietary score from TransUnion that you can't buy alone but it's included when you purchase the bureau's 3-in-1 credit monitoring service.

4) Experian's PLUS score

This is a FICO-like proprietary score from Experian that you can't purchase alone, but it comes with your purchase of other Experian credit products such as its Experian Credit Report and Score.