Your credit score can shape the future of your finances, even more so than your age or income. No single factor matters more to potential lenders, and those with poor scores can wind up shelling out hundreds more in interest payments over time. But despite the crucial nature of this three-digit number, many Americans are unsure of their score and how to obtain it.

Considering the complexity of credit reporting today, we can’t say we blame those confused about credit scores.

When it comes to personal finance, it’s hard to find a number that’s more important than your credit score. From the loans you can get to the interest rates you’ll pay, the financial implications of your score are hard to overstate.

It’s no wonder, then, that many Americans are searching for clarity about how their scores are calculated, and how they influence financial outcomes in their own lives.

Building credit can seem like the ultimate Catch-22: You need a good score to borrow money, but you need to borrow money to get a good score. This system leaves millions of Americans confused about where to start, unsure of what they can do to break this cycle of credit exclusion.

According to the latest Consumer Financial Protection Bureau numbers, 26 million adults are credit invisible, meaning credit reporting agencies have no data available for potential lenders.

When it comes to how you should spend and save your hard-earned cash, the internet is overflowing with free advice. But with so many tips at your disposal, it can be tough to know which ones to trust.

How about advice that represents the wisdom and experience of more than 12 million people?

You might have heard that you can’t consolidate private student loans. That’s one of many unfortunate misconceptions that keep people from getting a better deal on their monthly payments and interest rates. While private student loans can’t be consolidated through the federal government, there are several highly rated private lenders that can help you refinance them into a single monthly bill. And because private companies can be more selective about who they lend to, they often have significantly lower interest rates than the government offers.

It’s common for college students to graduate with multiple federal loans – which usually means making multiple payments to multiple servicers each month. To help grads cut through the clutter and simplify their bills, the U.S. Department of Education has a free loan consolidation program that is user-friendly. However, it has some drawbacks.