Credit.

Your credit score shapes the rate you're offered — and an installment loan can either help it or hurt it. This Credit section explains how scores are built, which habits move them, and exactly where borrowing fits in.

You'll find a step-by-step plan to build credit from scratch, a breakdown of credit-builder loans, and an honest look at whether installment loans build credit (and when they don't). Every guide is grounded in how FICO actually weights its factors, with sources from myFICO and the CFPB.