(msn) You've heard by now of credit scores, the three-digit numbers lenders use to gauge your creditworthiness. Credit scores predict how likely you are to default on a credit account or loan; they're used to help set interest rates and terms. What you may not know is that credit scores are just the start of the way financial institutions evaluate you, and they're not even the most commonly used scores -- far from it. While a credit card issuer might check your credit scores once a month as part of its regular account review process, the same company probably checks other kinds of scores every time you pull out your plastic. Talk back: What do you think about lenders' scoring methods? "Every single transaction has some sort of score being generated," said credit scoring expert John Ulzheimer, president of Credit.com's education services and author of the book "You're Nothing But a Number." "Generally they're checking whether the transaction is likely to be fraudulent, but there are other reasons as well." (view source to see all scoring methods).

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