As many of you know, I spent three years working at Fair, Isaac, home of the FICO credit score. Fortunately, I still have some good sources that work there. Here’s the latest news on some changes that are coming our way in terms of how your score is calculated.

If you have balances on your credit cards, make sure your balances are low. Specifically, see if you can keep your balances to below 30% of the credit limit on each card. Up until recently, having a balance on your card of 50% or lower of the credit limit was not going to ding your score, now the new ratio is 30% or lower.

If you have been card surfing (transferring your credit card balances to lower interest rate cards) Big Brother is on to your maneuvers. When we were in a pre-crash economy (remember those good old days) card surfing was very common and the algorithms were designed not to penalize you for those transactions. Those days are over. One of the most effective ways to improve your credit score is to pay down debt instead of transferring it.

When was the last time you checked your credit report for accuracy? Hopefully at least once a year, better twice a year in my opinion. To check your credit report for free once per year, go to www.annualcreditreport.com