OK, you've sent off for your free annual credit report and you've paid the extra fee to get your credit score but you don't know how to interpret credit scores. Here's how.

Credit scores range from 300-900. A credit score above 700 will get you the lowest possible interest rate on a mortgage at the time of the application.

Ever wonder how your credit score compares to most other people? Well, here's the distribution of credit scores by percentage of the total population.

• 499 and below 1 percent
• 500-549 5 percent
• 550-599 7 percent
• 600-649 11 percent
• 650-699 16 percent
• 700-749 20 percent
• 749-799 29 percent
• 800+ 11 percent

So if you're credit score is 710 then you will get the best possible mortgage interest rate and your score is shared by about 20% of all Americans.