If you have blemishes in your credit files, or are trying to establish credit, you already know what a pain it is living with bad or so-so credit: You get turned down for credit cards and loans, you pay sky-high interest rates when you do get approved, or you have to go (hat in hand) asking family or friends to co-sign for you or loan you money.

You probably wish you had good credit, right?

Well, having just a good credit rating isn't good enough. You need perfect credit. The difference between having good credit and an outstanding credit rating can mean getting approved for a much-needed loan or turned down for it.

Moreover, with perfect credit you can pocket tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime.

That is because people with excellent credit save money on loans of all kinds, pay less for various forms of insurance, and have better chances at getting hired or obtaining a promotion on the job.

Roughly 220 million Americans have credit files maintained by the Big Three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. More than half of these individuals have subprime or bad credit scores. Some people ran into credit problems after a job loss left them unable to pay their bills. Others have gone through divorce, and it is not uncommon for an ex to ruin their credit.

Another 50 million adults in the U.S. have no credit files - either because they've never used traditional forms of credit, or because their credit files are "too thin" to generate a credit score.

Perfect Credit offers all these consumers an easy-to-follow blueprint on how to get superb credit - and how to sidestep numerous credit traps and pitfalls along the way.