All Credit Reports are Not Created Equal — This means that your interest rate is somewhat dependent on whichever credit report your lender uses. This may not sound significant but a few points could mean the difference between being classified from the no credit risk category to the some Credit Risk category or even the default credit risk category. This could mean having several percentage points added to your loan.

How to Boost Your FICO Score wanted to share the four mistakes that can ‘hurt’ a credit score — be careful not to max out those credit cards. Potential lenders also care about how much a person is charging on their card, because the more they spend the less likely they will be able to repay the debt — this is where credit card utilization comes in.