credit

How a Solid Credit Score Saves You Money

Your FICO credit score has a direct bearing on what kind of interest you can expect to pay on a loan, a mortgage or any other similar product. Many employers and landlords als

Reduce Your Credit Limits to Manage Your Spending

Most of us have more credit than we need, and this can be dangerous for those trying to manage their debt and spending. Remove the temptation by asking for your credit lines to

Components of a Sales-Driven Credit Function

To accomplish your sales goals, create a credit function with these components.

New Credit Card Rules: Who Really Benefits?

Credit card industry reform may have good intentions, but will these rules encourage the same behavior that made reform necessary in the first place?

The Debt Trap: Factors That Have Led Us To Our Debt

We're a nation of borrowers. This reality is quite well illustrated by the personal stories and profiles covered by various media publications on the subject of consumer debt. Rec

Worried About Debt? Tips On Managing Your Loans

If you've got a lot of loans under your belt, you'll want to make sure that you're able to manage them well, or risk wrecking your credit by making a late payment somewhere. Deali

10 Tricks to Save Money with Credit Cards

The most credit savvy among us have been able to use credit cards to their benefit in order to wisely and optimally save money even while charging on their cards. If you are carefu

5 Strategies To Wipe Out Your Credit Card Balance

I have a couple of friends who live by their credit cards. Unfortunately, they both have lower income jobs and live in survival mode, while continuing to participate in one financially [more]

7 Free and Low Cost Ways To Protect Your Credit

Many people have fallen victim to identity theft and credit fraud such that it's become essential for us to keep an eye on our credit. Most of the time, a fraud victim finds out a

Conspicuous Spending: Fading to Black

In the black community and many other communities there is a sense that material possession and flair denotes character, accomplishment and power. It's a poor dad mentality and a

Can't Get A Bank Loan? 8 Other Ways To Finance Your Business

Starting a business can easily become a money pit. So for those of you thinking about launching a new venture, what financing options do you have? Well, there's the possibility

Debit Or Credit? Which One Should You Choose At The Checkout?

Debit or credit? Although the outcome seems the same, it’s a different process with different consequences.

It takes a frugal spouse to make a frugal home

Something of an exaggeration, of course—a one-person household can be very frugal. But there's an underlying truth: A household is only as frugal as its least-frugal member.

10 Reasons Why I Prefer Credit Cards Over Cash

You can call this a defense of the maligned credit card. There are a lot of people out there who are very distrustful of credit cards and the companies that offer them, no thanks t

Could you determine someone's creditworthiness by his or her looks?

Today I read about an interesting study done by Rice University on the correlation between trustworthiness and looks. The researchers utilized the popular peer to peer lending sit

Recession Journal Part I: 'Fast' Money in the '09

Forget about the fact that it's a recession. What you do now determines where you will be when the graph trends up again. What if you stopped dropping duckets like you dropped weig

What's the big deal about banks refusing to lend?

Anybody--but especially frugal people--can be excused for thinking that the whole credit crisis thing is being overblown. After all, we get along without debt. In fact, we str

Peak Debt

Is there a limit to how much Americans can spend? Clearly there is: All they earn, minus savings and service on their existing debt, plus new borrowing. Since the Bureau of Econ

Need a game to learn to manage your credit?

Everybody learns best in their own way. Some by reading, some by listening, some only by personal experience--and there are always a few who never learn. But, if you're one of th

The Jury Duty Scam – coming to a phone near you?

My wife forwarded me one of those “hey everyone, don’t fall for this” emails this morning. I get one from a friend or relative at least once a week, and usually they’re well-meanin