Credit scores influence nearly all things financial in your life. Banks, credit card companies and others use credit scores in deciding whether to give you a loan, how much money you can borrow and how much interest to charge you. Here’s some advice for improving your credit score:

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.

The majority of credit scores don’t increase or decrease every month, largely because the person is in what is known as “steady state” or equilibrium where their patterns of credit use and payment are balanced over time.

You and I might revel in the crisp autumn weather, but your credit score hates this time of year. The reason? Starting in October and continuing through the next 90 days, many households dramatically increase their spending.

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.