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Credit Card Basics, Ch. 2: Understanding credit scores. Ever wonder why you can go online and be approved for credit within 60 seconds? Or get pre-qualified for a car without anyone even asking you how much money you make? Or why you get one interest rate on loans, while your neighbor gets another? The answer is credit scoring. Your credit score is a number generated by a mathematical algorithm -- a formula -- based on information in your credit report, compared to information on tens of millions of other people.

The resulting number is a highly accurate prediction of how likely you are to pay your bills. If it sounds arcane and unimportant, you couldn't be more wrong. Scoring categories The scale runs from 300 to 850. American public's credit scores break out along these lines: What's the big deal? Your credit score will determine if you get credit at all, and the interest rate on that credit, says Ed Ojdana, president of Experian Consumer Direct, part of Experian, the largest of the three major credit-reporting agencies. Powerful little number. Neighborhood Search for Home Buyers and Real Estate Investment - NeighborhoodScout.

KAYAK - Cheap Flights, Hotels, Airline Tickets, Cheap Tickets, Cheap Travel Deals - Compare Hundreds of Travel Sites At Once. PriceGrabber.com - Smart Shopping Anytime, Anywhere. New Cars Pricing and Comparisons Local, Regional and National Car Price Reports at TrueCar. LinkedIn - World's Largest Professional Network. The 20 best money Web sites - 1. Do I need to save more for retirement? (1) - Money Magazine. Best Site:Basic.esplanner.com With the markets bouncing around so much, you may have checked some online calculators to see if you need to shovel in more cash. But many of those tools are flawed, argues Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff, the brain behind ESPlanner. For a start, they often ask you to guess how much of your pre-retirement income you'll want to live on.

"Who knows what percentage you should choose? ESPlannerBASIC skips such imponderables. Caveat: ESPlannerBASIC saves your data for only 24 hours. Try this too: For a quick review of how you're doing, go to CNNmoney.com/tools and "Check Your Financial Health. " By Lisa Gibbs, Joe Light and Ismat Sarah Mangla NEXT: 2. Free Personal Finance Software, Budget Software, Online Money Management and Budget Planner. Cell Phone Plans, Credit Cards & CD Rates, Compare & Save Money on BillShrink.