Anyone who has recently applied for a mortgage knows that lenders are already looking much more closely at your financial affairs. But soon, they’ll be able to easily delve into the deepest recesses of your financial life, accessing information that never before appeared on your credit report.

If you haven’t started playing the FICO game yet, here are 10 little-known credit cheats that will help you get to the next credit level. There’s one score that follows you around for life — your credit score!

The Lane Bryant credit card will allow you to save money and earn rewards at one of America’s top plus-size women’s fashion retailers. They are especially known for their plus-size line of sexy lingerie Cacique which offers lacy bras, panties, and other intimates. Lane Bryant has been in existence for over 100 years, opening its first store in 1901. Though it is not a standard credit card — not being affiliated with Visa or MasterCard, there are still benefits to having a Lane Bryant credit card.

In order to improve your credit score, it’s always the same formula — you need to make on-time payments, reduce debt, increase credit lines and use plenty of diversity in your credit profile. Additionally, it will help significantly to keep old lines of credit open.

Start by doing a credit checkup — you can monitor your credit yourself by requesting a free report once a year from each of the credit bureaus through www.annualcreditreport.com but the free report won’t include your credit score, you’ll pay about $8 to get the credit bureau’s proprietary number.