My Credit Score Was Actually 70 Points Lower Than I Thought--And Yours May Be, Too

When my husband and I decided to take out a home equity line of credit for a renovation, we assumed we'd get a great interest rate based on our good credit scores. We've always paid our bills on time and don't maintain any credit card debt. There's just one demerit on my report; a medical bill in collections I've unsuccessfully disputed. But even with that blip, the credit monitoring service I use--CreditWise--said my score hovered in the high 700s!