1.   Among other things, the bill would require insurance companies to disclose how they use credit scores to adjust rates.

2.   Another limitation is the fact that the same credit score means different things to different people.

3.   Barnett said it sold receivables held by customers who live outside Florida and Georgia, customers that the bank recently acquired and those with low credit scores.

4.   A credit score is a three-digit number that summarizes your credit history and to a degree controls your future access to credit.

5.   A California law will allow home buyers to find out their credit scores and any factors that lowered those scores.

6.   A similar situation arises when credit-card companies that send unsolicited offers through the mail check your credit score beforehand.

7.   Achieving that goal pushes your credit score up, maybe enough to take you out of the subprime lending category.

8.   After correcting obvious mistakes, consumers may have trouble improving a credit score because the computations remain a tightly guarded secret.

9.   But critics worry that using credit scores to screen insurance candidates may be unfair to some people who have not established much of a credit record.

10.   But last month the insurer began re-evaluating the use of credit scores as they apply to people who lack a credit history because they pay cash, Swope said.