Whether you’re looking for a job, buying a car or shopping for insurance, it’s always a good idea to review your credit report before a potential lender (or employer) takes a peek.

Your credit report, a running history of your borrowing and payment behavior, is likely to be pulled and scrutinized. Whether it’s accurate or not, any negative information can cost you thousands of dollars in the form of interest rates on loans. Even worse, it can stop you from being able to make a purchase or land that job.

“Credit has become more and more important,” Jesse Levey, COO of Credit Sesame, a website that provides credit monitoring services as well as other personal finance tools, told CNBC’s “On the Money” in an interview.

“It used to be you needed good credit if you wanted a mortgage, now good credit makes a difference in so many different aspects of your life,” he added.

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