NSF checks (Non Sufficient Funds), also referred as a bounced check are considered bad and will end up on your credit report — lowering your FICO Score and preventing you from obtaining credit.

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!

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.

Although 20 points doesn’t seem like much, it can mean a lot when it comes to your credit score. You wouldn’t know it from the consumer side, but there is a world of difference between a credit score of 580 and 600. Your options open up when you increase your credit score by 20 points, and they close up when your credit score decreases — find out how to increase your score by 20 points.

There are a wide variety of myths floating around about what you should and shouldn’t do to improve your credit reports and credit scores.