If you have a Capital One credit card, then you’d probably be surprised to learn that your credit score was being penalized for it. That’s because Capital One didn’t report your total credit limit to the three credit bureaus, they only reported your credit balances. What this meant was that your percent utilization (30% of your score) was higher than what it really was and your total credit limit was lower than what it really was, resulting in a lower credit score. Before you say, heck, that doesn’t really matter does it? You should know that this one change can boost your score anywhere from forty to eight points, a significant point difference.

Increasing your credit score from 659 to 700 can cut your mortgage rate from 7.68% all the way down to 6.59% on a thirty year $300,000 mortgage. That difference will save you $221 a month and over $2600 in the first year.

So if you have a Capital One card, rejoice! If you don’t, you probably don’t care then.