Since last Thursday, February 5th, your credit score has been calculated differently. Ever since having passed vote in the Federal Reserve Board (as discussed on the forum) I've been waiting to see when the changes would actually take effect. Well, they've taken effect, so it's best to know about them so that you can tailor your financial habits accordingly.

• Spouses and children can improve their credit score by being an authorized user on a credit card account, but that's it. No more piggybacking off of strangers.

• Debts less than $100 that go to collections will matter less.

• Credit card issuers will look at the total picture more. For instance, a single repossession won't matter as much if everything else looks good.

• Having less available credit will drag down your score more.

• Diversity matters more. A mix of healthy auto, personal and student loans would bring up a score.

• Closing accounts will bring down the score.

"Wait! Didn't some of those rules already affect your credit score?", you may ask. (Such as closing account having a negative effect.) Yes, they did…in many cases. Now the rules are standardized and apply to all accounts, no matter who the issuer/financial institution.

Your credit score, just like any other number, should not be fret over too much. Do your best to educate yourself on the basics and stay out of trouble, but don't give to much thought to day-to-day actions and how they may or may not affect it. Another thing is that these rules, although already in effect, will not have an immediate impact on your FICO score. It will be years before the credit monitors put enough information together to compile new scores using the FICO '08 data.