Your credit score can be friend or your enemy, and by maintaining good credit, your score can actually put more money into your pocket.

Credit bureaus compute your credit score-the three.digit number ranging from 300,850 based on your credit history-using methods modeled after the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO). The higher your credit or FICO score, the less you'll pay in interest and the more you can effectively manage and accumulate wealth.

Whether you're applying for a car loan, credit card or mortgage, your credit score determines if you'll be approved for the loan, how much credit will be made available to you and how much the loan will cost you over the duration of the deal.

"A low credit score means that you will pay a higher interest to borrow money and/ score in the 70 or receive credit," says Carla J. Cargle, a Texas-based financial advisor and founder and CEO of Genesis One Wealth Builders. "Since the interest rate is higher, this results in a higher payment. A higher payment means there is less money available to invest toward saving, retirement, etc."

Experts encourage those who are hovering around a fair score of 620-650 to strive for a higher score. "You want to maintain a credit score in the 700s, that would be a great score. It gives you more bargaining power, which could be the difference of a 5 percent or an 8 percent rate," says Brian Scott, a financial education specialist with Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Atlanta. "However, 620 would probably be the minimum score that you would want to have when applying for a loan."

The difference in scores considerably affects rates and your monthly payments. For instance, on a $150,000, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage, according to myfico.com, if your score is between 620-639, with a 7.55% rate you'll pay $1,054 a month. With a 680-699 score, you'll pay $119 less with a $935 payment on a 6.36% rate. If you have a favorably high score of 760-850, you'll pay $896 a month on a 5.96% interest rate, with a total savings of $56,880 over the life of the mortgage.

Another reason to manage your credit wisely to earn a high credit score is to make a difference in employment and insurance premiums.