One truly busy buzz term these days is credit score. With the housing market in such turmoil, the interest in credit scores can mean an affordable home or one that becomes a financial struggle to pay for. Do you know what your credit score is?

Everybody's got one, whether or not we know it. In the United States, credit scores range between 300 and 850 with the average credit score being somewhere, but not exactly, in the middle of that range. The lower the score, the higher the mortgage rate, or perhaps no mortgage at all.

A credit score represents a person's or a married couple's likelihood of paying off any loans such as mortgages that are approved. A person's, or couple's, previous payment history for all sorts of things go into play when calculating a credit score.

The average credit score is based on the timeliness of payments to mortgage companies and rental property management companies. It includes utility bill payments, automobile loan payments, student loan payments, and credit card payments.

The credit score isn't based solely on how much money all these payments add up to but that's important, too. The loan applicant's payment history is involved with calculating a credit score. Early payments and those made on time earn a higher score. The later the payments the lower the score.

In the US today, the average credit score is based on whichever credit bureau works with the lender in question. Some lenders use the FICO score, developed by a company called Fair Isaac Corporation. Others use one of the big three credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

When researching your own credit score, be aware that credit bureaus make mistakes, although it will probably be no easy task to convince them they've erred on your behalf. If your credit report shows a defaulted mortgage for the condo way high up in the slopes of the Rockies in Colorado but you've never been further west than the Mississippi River, do try to convince them the condo, and the defaulted mortgage associated with it, belong to somebody else.

So perhaps you do, in fact, know what your credit score is. How does that stack up against the average credit score in America? According to FICO, the average credit score in the US is 723 but Experian says it's only 678.