Is one's credit score actually important?

It matters if you ever buy a house, lease a car, get a personal/business loan, apply for a credit card, or apply for certain jobs. Other than that, no, your credit score doesn’t matter at all.

Paying for your credit score, however, is totally unnecessary.

Yes it’s important. Some of the poorest people who came from poor backgrounds but managed to save a little money and keep good credit were able to open up their own businesses and succeed and pay loans back and enter into profit eventually.

You do not need to pay to see it, but it is critical to check and maintain your creditworthiness if you want to be able to borrow money.

Also can be important if you want to rent an apartment or a house.

If you want to buy something on credit yes. Otherwise no.

Whether you’re unemployed or hunting for a new position, your job search can be impacted by your credit report. Knowing that a potential employer may, depending on state law, check credit history can cause great concern for job applicants – and claims of unfairness. After all, a divorce, layoff, or even a medical problem can put many people in financial dire straits – and these issues can skew the real picture of a person’s financial prowess.

http://www.freecreditscore.com/resources/credit-articles/employment/5-ways-your-credit-history-can-impact-your-job-search

Most employers will ask for a letter of explanation if you have a poor credit score. Almost all financial employment opportunities require a credit check. If the job requires you to handle money, the employer wants to know if there may be a temptation to take money to solve your own financial situation.

I assure you the concept of credit score has been around a lot longer than 10 years. And yes, your credit score can be important. The only thing that’s new are all these websites that try to sucker people into some obligation or payment for their credit score. There are three major organizations that keep track of your credit score (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) and by law you’re entitled to one free credit report from each of those three per year.

(Note: this is in the US. Obviously, the laws and agencies involved may differ in other countries.)

Things are now rigged so that your credit score is second only to your criminal record in determining how the world is going to treat you. It is close to unbelievable the arbitrary assumptions that can and will be made about you based on your credit score. It is also vitally important that you keep an eye on your score. The 3 agencies are notorious for saddling peoples’ credit records with erroneous information. The agencies are required by law to issue you a copy of your credit record once a year upon your request. DO IT. And hop on them to correct misinformation in your records. It really is prudent self protection.