During yesterday’s episode of The Personal Finance Hour, Jim and I spoke with Liz Pulliam Weston, financial columnist and credit score expert. Weston provided background on how the credit scoring system works, and offered tips for how to maintain (and improve) your credit score.
During the show, Weston mentioned a past MSN Money article in [...]

Join us this afternoon for the 13th episode of The Personal Finance Hour. Today, Jim and I will be joined by a special guest, money writer Liz Pulliam Weston. Weston, “the most-read personal finance columnist on the Internet”, writes regularly for MSN Money, and is the author of Your Credit Score: Your Money and What’s [...]

Last week I had lunch with Hardy, a Get Rich Slowly reader here in Portland. We chatted about life (and personal finance) over burgers and fries. He generously offered to pay the bill. When the waitress returned with the credit card slip, she asked to see his driver license.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“Asking [...]

Mark Frauenfelder (founder of the awesome Boing Boing) has a piece at PC.com that asks: When is a free credit report not a free credit report? The answer, of course, is: When it comes from FreeCreditReport.com.
FreeCreditReport.com, which has raised the ire of many, does allow people to look at their credit reports free for [...]

In yesterday’s USA Today, Kathy Chu offered tips to help consumers with disputes on credit card charges. This is a nice companion piece to this morning’s GRS post about thwarting credit-card company tricks.
“No industry statistics are available about how often such disputes are won by consumers,” Chu writes. “But to maximize their chances, consumers [...]

This is a guest post from Justin McHenry, president of Index Credit Cards, a credit card comparison and information site. Index Credit Cards was named “most comprehensive” by Reader’s Digest in its October 2008 issue, and regularly cited by both old and new media.
True or False? Credit card companies lure you in with big promises, [...]

Several months ago, I took my own advice about how to choose a credit card and signed up for an American Express card from Costco. This is a business card and not a personal card. (I carry only one personal credit card.)
In early October, I complained that I wasn’t willing to activate the card until [...]

This is a guest post from Sonia Coleman. It originally appeared in slightly different form at her blog, Coleman Unlimited.
Last night I had to call my bank to follow up on a rebate check for my new Fujitsu ScanSnap that bounced (it’s that “crisis” thing again, I guess). It’s a great scanner, but I am [...]

Several GRS readers have written lately with the same credit card problem — but not the one you’d expect. Perhaps in an effort to cut costs, credit card companies are beginning to close their customers’ unused accounts. Nicole shared a typical experience:

I’m 26 and have a solid 8-year credit history. Despite really wanting to get [...]

I recently participated in a conference call with Suze Orman, who is working to promote Best Life Week. This series runs on The Oprah Winfrey Show all this week, and is intended to help viewers “jumpstart 2009 and make it the best year ever!”
Hyperbole aside, it was great to have a chance to speak with [...]