Your Credit Cards Guide

You know that saying about the cobbler’s family going without shoes? The same goes for the personal finance writer who never follows her own advice.

Just last week, I put the finishing touches on an article for CreditCards.com about avoiding credit card mistakes while you’re traveling. All the experts agreed: Since credit cards do occasionally get stolen, write down all your card numbers, along with issuer phone numbers, and store them in a safe place. “Ooh, smart advice!” I remember thinking.

That’s why I was pretty quick to recognize the irony when that very afternoon, my purse, including my wallet full of credit cards, was stolen from my car at the neighborhood pool. And no, I didn’t have my credit card numbers written down.

You don’t have to tell me: I’m a moron. But I figured that after years of being fairly careless with my purse, this stuff simply doesn’t happen to me.

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We talk a lot about rewards credit cards and the perks that networks offer, but Visa debit cards come with benefits as well. Most of the time, debit cards get written off as a cash equivalent that just happens to handle going through the laundry better than dollar bills. However, all Visa debit cards give access to merchant discounts, and some even give rewards on purchases.

A number of banks and issuers – Chase and Discover come immediately to mind – offer online rewards malls that allow you to earn discounts/rewards when you buy, through their site, from partner retailers. However, sometimes these marketplaces are limited to rewards credit cardholders. Visa Discounts is available to everyone, including checking customers, who hold a Visa card.

The discounts change from time to time, and come with restrictions. For

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A new service called “Credit Sesame” gives you access to a monthly updated free credit score based on credit profile information pulled from credit bureau Experian.

While this sounds pretty cool, keep in mind Credit Sesame uses Experian’s National Equivalency Score, which is not a Fico score.

However, it does rely upon the Fico score range, which ranges from 300-850, so that’s a plus.

But they don’t provide a credit report with payment information and tradeline activity, so it’s a bit limited.

The good news is that the credit pull is a soft one, meaning it will not hurt your credit score .

Signing Up for Credit Sesame

So out of curiosity, I decided to sign up for Credit Sesame – they ask quite a few personal questions, including home address and annual household income, but alas, I continued.

They then ask for your social security number, which is used to pull credit information from Experian .

After that, you must answer a few questions about what may appear on your credit report to verify your identity.

Once registered, Credit Sesame provides you with your credit score instantly, along with your monthly liabilities, which is the combined minimum monthly payments for all your credit card debt and loans .

They also provide your credit usage, which is the amount of your revolving credit currently in use. The lower the

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FICO released their latest version of their FICO score called FICO 8 in 2009.  Since that time 3,500 financial institutions have switched to it. On June 6, 2011, Citi Cards, one of the largest US credit card issuers, announced they will be using the newest version.  Citi Cards  will be using it for pre-approved offers for credit as well as account management processes.  Citi Cards has been validating and testing it for 18 months.   T

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Have $2,000 to spare?

More than half of Americans likely wouldn’t have $2,000 to cover an unexpected expense in the next month, according to a new study reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Why $2,000? According to the study, 2K represents an unexpected expense such as a major car repair, a large copayment on a medical expense, legal expenses, or a home repair expense. That means 1 out of 2 consumers are financially unprepared to tackle these types of expenses.

When faced with these scary results, we asked our favorite personal finance bloggers, “How would you come up with a way to save $2,000 quickly?” We’re sharing these expert responses with you with the hope that you’ll take action to start that emergency fund yourself.

Read on, and happy saving!

The best way to save $2,000 is to click the transfer button once your paycheck hits your account! Should take about 8 seconds with some finger muscle sacrifice.

To round up $2k fast, attack from all sides. Got unuse

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In previous articles I have discussed new laws for tax liens and their removal.  Often the IRS is considered the enemy and since it is a government agency, you feel you are helpless and can’t fight them.  Tax season is over, but you can be contacted at any time of the year for an audit. Wha

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