Cooking the Books podcast: How to check and fix your credit score

If you've had a bad run with credit cards, it doesn't have to be the end. Photo / file

OPINION

Each week the NZ Herald's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how to take control of your credit score. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Listen to the Cooking the Books podcast here or watch the interview above.

Credit scores are important, but it can be hard to figure out how important they are in our part of the world.

A lot of personal finance advice comes from the United States, where their credit system is entirely different.

Trying to copy that here could see you spending a lot on credit card fees, with no reward.

So for the latest Cooking the Books podcast I talked to Tom Hartmann from Sorted, about how to understand our system.

We discussed what a credit score is used for, how you can check yours and whether you really need a credit card in order to have a good score.

For the interview, watch the video above, or listen to the podcast.

• If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

• Listen to the full interview on the Cooking the Books podcast. You can find new episodes in the Herald, or subscribe on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts app, or Spotify, or to our Youtube playlist