What's Affecting Your Credit Score?

I just read this article at:

http://www.financialpost.com/personal-finance/What+affecting+your+credit+score/4126038/story.html

It isn't something that most people think about very often, but it becomes very important when you are applying for a mortgage on a house. There are a number of factors that affect your credit score, not just whether or not you generally pay your bills in full and on time.

I am not a financial advisor, and it could be misinformation, but I actually also heard recently that even if you pay your bills on the due date, your credit score wouldn't be as good as it would be if you paid it as soon as you receive it.

As the article explains, having too many credit cards can be a bad thing, but having too few can also be bad:
"Your utilization of credit is also a major factor — that’s your balance divided by available credit. It’s not based on whether you have a balance at the end of the month but it’s the balance outstanding at a given moment divided by your available credit.
“If that number exceeds 40%, that is typically a warning sign,” says Mr. Reid, noting a higher credit limit will keep that percentage down.
The last factors are longer term credit history and the breadth of your credit, somebody who has just one credit card doesn’t look as strong as someone who also has a line of credit and say a mortgage." click the link to see the whole article by Garry Marr, Financial Post · Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011. (Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/personal-finance/What+affecting+your+credit+score/4126038/story.html#ixzz1C642R7KB.)