Credit Reports

There's a lot of talk right now about how to get the U.S. economy back on track. One big problem is that American consumers have slammed their wallets shut, opting to save more and charge less. At the same time, many credit card companies have cut off access to credit for millions of people. All...

Although there are a lot of ways you can seriously harm your credit score, not every financial misstep comes back to haunt you. Although a single missed payment can drop your score by 100 points, read on to discover several slip-ups that will have little, if any, impact. Mind you, we don't advise...

Identity theft is a problem that isn't going away anytime soon. With more than 11 million victims in the U.S. in 2009, it's a very real problem that can become an even bigger hassle during the holiday shopping season, when we are busier (and more distracted) than usual and hunting for a good...

Right before and after the holidays you'll probably get a lot of bank offers to transfer credit-card balances from one account to another. If you see balance transfers as an opportunity to go on a shopping spree, chances are you haven't quite learned how to manage credit and debt wisely, and that...

Most of us know it's important to be aware of our credit limit on each card we have, but a growing class of cards are now being marketed to Americans as having no preset spending limit. While this sounds great, in theory, new research uncovers some hidden drawbacks that can undermine your efforts...

If you thought it was hard to qualify for loans and obtain credit in 2010, wait until 2011, when lenders start using freshly updated, more rigorous versions of two popular credit-scoring systems. Fair Isaac, creator of the widely-used FICO score, recently rolled out an enhanced version of one of...

We've heard the warnings before, but now that the holiday shopping season is upon us, it may be useful to hear it again: Back away from the wallet, put down that credit card, and think about what you're about to do. Even the tiniest action, when it comes to credit, can hurt your credit score. For...