“If you’re trying to get a handle on your finances, keep in mind that you’re paying for the things you buy with your life’s energy,” Rowley said. If you want a $500 Prada handbag, for example, how long and how hard do you have to work in order to get it?

Determining your financial goals based on what’s important to you is a good first step in taking control of your financial future. “Decide what you value most and build goals around that, and then use money as a tool to get there, instead of doing things unconsciously,” Rowley said.

You should not only consider what’s important to you when writing out your financial goals you, but also what is most urgent. “Some people want to change their lives, but some just want to get ahead of their bills,” Rowley said. If your ultimate goal is to spend more time with your family, for example, think of the financial obstacles preventing you from that and how to overcome them (e.g. eliminating your debt).

According to Rowley, the number one thing people can do in order to secure their financial future is to eliminate revolving debt. “Some might focus on education or job security, but the expense of revolving debt is really profound over time,” Rowley said. If you have a lot of credit card debt, for example, you may want to consider something as simple as paying double your minimum payment each month, something that Rowley says will allow you to get out of debt in just a few years no matter how much you owe.

You may not think that you are in a position to pay double your minimum payment, but this brings us back to trade-offs. For example, is getting out of debt important enough to you to go without cable for a few months? Try using a payoff calculator to see how much increasing your payments will decrease the amount of time it takes you to pay off your debt and therefore decrease the amount of money you pay in interest charges.

Whether you’re able to increase your payments or not, getting a handle on your cost of living and looking at ways to reduce it is another key component to your financial security. “It’s incredibly important for people to track their expenses. Know exactly how much is coming in and how much is going out,” Rowley said. She suggests writing down everything you spend over a 30-day period and when you review “ask yourself, ‘am I spending on what I value most’?”

Even if you are tracking your expenses and working towards your financial goals, the most careful planner can be thrown off track by an unexpected expense. Rowley says the best way to react to something like this is not to panic. If you’ve been living within your means and sticking to a budget, a financial emergency will seem less like a financial tragedy. Unexpected costs are an inevitable fact of life, so an emergency fund is key to responding to this kind of crisis. She recommends that consumers are diligent in setting aside money for this kind of emergency.

Keeping your priorities straight and knowing what you value most will go a long way in helping you get a handle on your finances. Stick to your goals, track your expenses, and pay off your debt as quickly as possible. As Rowley said, “Money is not easy, but it’s simple.”

Laura Rowley is the author of Money and Happiness. You can read her articles in her weekly column for Yahoo! Finance or on her blog at http://www.moneyandhappiness.com/blog/ .

In case your one of these people who have better things to do than read your credit card agreement all weekend, here is a quick checklist of the absolutely essential information you should look for on your credit card application before you apply:

• The introductory and regular APRs for new purchases and balance transfers
• The annual fee
• The balance transfer fee
• Details on how to earn rewards and what your rewards points/miles are worth

Since this information is critical to the agreement, you would think it would be front and center on an application. However, the CardHub.com Summer 2010 Credit Card Application Study found that this is not the case with many issuers. The study evaluated the 10 largest credit card issuers on the information that could be gathered from their credit card applications without reading the fine print, as this is what most people see before applying for a credit card.

The issuers that ranked the highest in clarity were Capital One and Bank of America, with scores of 96.4 percent and 95.0 percent, respectively. The issuer that performed the worst was U.S. Bank, with a score of 59.3 percent, followed by USAA with 77.5 percent and American Express with 78.3 percent.

The most common problem on the applications evaluated was poor disclosure of the balance transfer fee. As a consumer this is certainly something you want to be aware of, as it can cost you a lot of money, is generally hidden, and is not something that applicants always know to look for.

The next biggest problem was the description of rewards programs for non-cash back rewards credit cards. Generally, most credit card applications were relatively upfront on how to earn rewards (i.e. $1 spent = 2 rewards points). What was more difficult to find was how much your rewards points or miles were actually worth (Does 5,000 points get me a night at the Four Seasons or a Motel 6?).

So, if you want to know what you’re getting into at a glance, Capital One and Bank of America offer the most transparency on their applications. Whether the issuers who scored lower are doing it intentionally or not (and my guess would be that it’s not an accident), they are still keeping their customers in the dark on essential information.

You can’t depend on the credit card companies to give you everything upfront, but if you know to be on the look out for these essential components before you hit ‘Apply Now’, you’re off to a good start.

Today’s guest post is from the team at CouponSherpa.com.

A sweet coupon is tough to resist, but offers that appear too good to be true can be fraudulent. Coupons are easy to find and have become so popular that scammers regularly reared their ugly heads with sophisticated cons. With a little experience and the following nine tips, you can spot these con artists and avoid being taken for a ride.

1. Never pay for coupons. If you have to pay for coupons, you’re not really getting a deal. And there’s a high likelihood you’re simply being scammed or the deal is available elsewhere online for free.

2. Watch for “bait and switch” tactics. This scam offers you online coupon codes and, once you agree, requires you fill in a form with personal information, including your credit-card details, passwords and other financial data. These “phishing” sites can result in your receiving a ton of email spam and a possibly having to deal with identity theft.

3. Look for legal lingo and expiration dates. Online coupons will have the same usage copy as those found in your newspaper. Make sure your coupon includes legal lingo reading: “Not to be altered, copied, transferred, purchased or sold.” Coupons lacking this line of copy are often altered copies of old, expired coupons.

4. Avoid online membership clubs or services. Many offer savings you could find elsewhere and require exorbitant fees. There’s something very wrong with paying $9.95 to register with a club then paying 10 percent of each coupon’s face value and a 75-cent shipping fee.

5. If a store refuses to accept an Internet coupon, send a letter or email to the company customer service department and provide the name of the store, the name of the person with whom you spoke, a copy or link to the coupon and where you got it.

Most retailers are familiar with online coupons by now, so you shouldn’t have a problem. Just in case, however, it helps to know many online coupon sources have agreements with grocery store chains. The failure of local store management to accept online coupons may only mean a break-down in training. Alerting the company customer service department should ensure you’re able to use your Internet coupons on your next trip to the store.

6. Keep an eye on the cash register. Make sure the printable coupon is applied to your total before you make the purchase. A discount will NEVER appear after you have purchased an item.

7. Use a reputable online coupon site like Coupon Sherpa.

8. Go straight to the source. Sign up for emails from the retailers you shop with to get coupons directly from the retailer.

9. Report fraudulent activities to the FTC. To file a complaint, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261.

This guest post was written by Bob Brooks, host of the Prudent Money Radio Show and President of Prudent Money Financial Services. For more information please visit www.prudentmoney.com.

About a year ago, I wrote that things might really start to change in the process of how credit card companies go after consumers who have defaulted on their accounts.

Let’s first review how credit card companies go about the debt collection process. There are 2 different ways for a credit card company to collect defaulted debt. First, they can go about it the traditional way of being persistent and going through the debt collection process. If the consumer still doesn’t pay, they either give up and assign it to a third party debt collector, or write if off and sell it to a third party debt collector. Their second avenue of collecting defaulted debt is through legal means for the purpose of seeking a judgment against the consumer. Once they have the judgment, the debt collector or original creditor has other avenues of collection available to them.

For the consumer, this is the one thing you want to avoid. They can go about getting a judgment through the filing of a lawsuit or through the arbitration process.

Arbitration is a totally different process than going through a lawsuit. There are no official papers served to the consumer. A letter is sent to the consumer alerting them that the arbitration process has been started against them. They are asked to respond to the letter. The vast majority of time, the consumer doesn’t even show up for the arbitration proceedings.

Arbitration is credit card industry friendly and is a process that always stacks the cards against the consumer.

The consumer doesn’t show up, they lose the arbitration, and then the debt collector or creditor is awarded a judgment through a court of law.
The two largest arbitration associations in the country are National Arbitration Forum (NAF) and the American Arbitration Association (AAA). Last year, the NAF had a lawsuit filed against them for their secret association with a large debt collection firm. Apparently, the arbitration association and the debt collector owned a hedge fund and they were filing arbitration proceedings against consumers right and left. Both parties were owned by the same company. There was no impartiality at all. It was a consumer scam.

As a result, the NAF stated they will no longer participate in consumer based arbitrations. In addition to the NAF dropping out of the credit card collection game, the second largest association dropped out of the debt collection arbitration business as well. This takes away two of the biggest players available to debt collectors, which is a huge victory for consumers. This makes it tougher for debt collectors to collect through legal means unless they want to file lawsuits.

About the same time, Bank of America announced that they would stop using arbitration to settle defaulted credit card accounts with consumers. This past week, they made that official by sending out a letter that they are dropping the arbitration clause from their credit card contracts. The striking of that language from credit card contracts and elimination of this anti-consumer process is a big victory for credit card holders. This also gives the consumer the ability to sue the credit card company where the mandatory arbitration clause removed that ability. With a major player like Bank of America taking this step, other credit card companies should follow suit.

It used to be that credit card companies, such as Chase, Bank of America, Citi, and American Express, could re-price your APR on your entire balance for any reason and at any time. All they had to do was give you notice and there wasn’t a lot that you could do to avoid the increase. The CARD Act has certainly made the rules around rate increases better for consumers – but that hasn’t stopped credit card companies from trying to make you think otherwise. Although the fine print is confusing, you should rest easy knowing that the consumer protection rules in the CARD Act apply to all credit cards, with the exception of business credit cards.

To investigate just how misleading the credit card companies are trying to be, CardHub.com evaluated the top 10 credit card issuers (based on outstanding balances) for the clarity of their post-CARD Act Penalty APR polices in the June 2010 Penalty APR Study. The study gave overall poor ratings to 6 of the 10 issuers because they were either lacking transparency or appeared to be utilizing the new rules to engage in “gotcha” rate practices. The fact that the majority of issuers evaluated did not clearly explain how rate increases work is not surprising, given that the study also found that the Sample Statement on the Federal Reserve’s Consumer’s Guide to Credit Cards does an equally poor job.

Long story short, the CARD Act has made things better, but if you look at the credit card companies’ disclosures it’s impossible to determine what their policy is relative to the law. Therefore, trying to make out the fine print on your credit card application is a waste of time. When it comes down to it, no matter how vague or complicated they try to make it, all credit card companies have to uniformly comply with the rules under the CARD Act.

So here is what you need to know:

Under the new law, a credit card company may not increase the APR on your existing balance (i.e. purchases you have already made) unless you are 60 days delinquent in making a minimum payment on your account. If your interest rate is increased for this reason, they are required by law to bring your interest rate back down to the regular rate after timely payments for six consecutive months.

The credit card company may not re-price any of your APRs on future or existing balances for the first 12 months unless you are 60 days delinquent. Should they change your rate for future transactions for any reason, they are required to send you a notice specifying the reason for the rate increase 45 days in advance, and the rate increase can only apply to purchases made 14 days after the notice was sent. If you feel the rate increase is unfair, you can reject the changes. You won’t be able to charge anything else to the account, but you will be able to pay down your existing balance at your own pace and at the regular APR.

Today’s guest post is from the team at FreeShipping.org

The lazy days of Summer may be in full swing, but bargain shoppers might want to consider a little break from the beach.  There are quite a few deals to be had for those willing to plan ahead on major purchases.  FreeShipping.org’s “Best Time to Buy Guide” covers over 75 products and services, offering helpful tips on when to save the most money.  Knowing the best time to buy that new car, house or lawn mower could be the difference between saving hundreds if not thousands of dollars every year.  Read on for your best bets in July and August, use them wisely, then kick back with the knowledge that while temperatures may rise, your credit card bills don’t have to.

Broadway Tickets
New Yorkers flock to new shows in the fall and consider summer performances “très gauche.” That means theaters are more likely to fill empty seats in July with cut-rate tickets. On the other hand, some truly good theater closes quickly, so availability depends on a show’s popularity.
Best time to buy Broadway tickets: July

Furniture
New furniture is typically released bi-annually. Retailers like Crate and Barrel slash prices in January with anticipation of new furniture arriving in February. Prices are lowered again in July for the arrival of new furniture in August.

Furniture also goes on sale around Mother’s day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Father’s Day, Black Friday and Christmas.
Best time to buy furniture: January and July

Suits
“Suit up” on fall suits in January and spring suits in July. Before you buy, however, make sure the style is timeless. Avoid such time-dated fashions as double-breasted suits and the gargantuan shoulders of the 1980s.
Best time to buy a suit: January and July

Computers
Computers have become essential items for students which is why most retailers have big back to school sales in August. You can also get a good deal on a computer during the run up to Christmas.

Technology blogs and manufacturer websites should have information about when new computer models will be released. If you have your eye on an older model and a new model is soon to be released, it may be worth the wait in order to buy it at a lower price.
Best time to buy a computer: August and December

Dehumidifier
Apparently people are less interested in sucking the moisture out of their homes in late summer as August is when merchants put dehumidifiers on sale.
Best time to buy a dehumidifier: August

Flip Flops
The summer months are when stores stock up on hundreds of different flip-flop styles and patterns at low, low prices. Wait until the fall and you may have to pay a hefty premium for out-of-season and out-of-style sandals.
Best time to buy flip flops: August

Garden Plants and Flowers
Prices on plants and flowers fall drastically after midsummer when nurseries and garden supply stores are trying to clear inventory.
Best time to buy garden plants and flowers: August

Groceries
Grocery sales tend to run Wednesday through Tuesday making the first day of the sale the best time to get in on discounts before items sell out.

Buy items at lower prices or in-season and save them for later use by freezing them. You can also plan ahead for your holiday meals and buy a discounted turkey then freeze it for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

The best time to buy fruits and vegetables is when they are fresh. The following is a list of the best ones to buy in summer:

Beets, blackberries, broccoli, corn, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, nectarines, peaches, plums, raspberries, tomatoes, watermelon and zucchini.

Lawn Mowers
Once summer is over stores begin preparing for Fall products, which means big sales on lawn mowers. Stores need to make room for new inventory and lawn mowers take up plenty of space.
Best time to buy a lawn mower: August

Swimsuits
Every woman above a size six knows there’s really no good time to deal with the nightmare of finding a swimsuit that looks good and fits. The rest of humanity should wait until the end of summer, when crowds at pools and beaches begin to thin out.
Best time to buy a swimsuit: August and September

Swing Sets
Swing sets go on sale at summer’s end, when children have abandoned outdoor play for indoor pursuits. Swing sets also take up a lot of floor space merchants are just itching to fill with holiday merchandise.
Best time to buy a swing set: August

FreeShipping.org is the largest resource on the Internet that links shoppers to free shipping deals offered by online retailers. To date, there are more than 2,400 online retailers represented on the site, including Victoria’s Secret, Target, Bloomingdale’s, Kohl’s, Sears, Best Buy, Old Navy, Nordstrom and Macy’s.

This guest post is written by Ted Higgins, a financial writer for the Total Bankruptcy Blog.

During the World Cup, soccer players will flop, feign, and fall in order to draw penalties against their opponents. Unfortunately, this sort of scamming also occurs away from the field. In fact, major international events like the World Cup create a golden opportunity for criminals operating credit card scams.

Banks typically use risk-calculating formulas to determine whether bizarre credit card transactions are actually the result of scams. However, when thousands of international travelers make unique purchases, such as flights to South Africa or tickets to World Cup games, these risk calculations can be overwhelmed and fail to properly function.

As a result, according to Bank Systems & Technology, banks often fail to notice fraudulent transactions associated with international sporting events because of the statistical chaos created by the high volume of unique credit activity.

This fear proved accurate immediately after the World Cup match ups were announced, when banks saw a sharp increase in the number of reported frauds. Such fraud often occurs through “phishing” emails, which can often look very professional. These emails will usually ask for victims credit card details or online banking passwords. During an event like the World Cup, scam emails often promise bargains on tickets or seductive travel packages.

While banks do police fraudulent activity, they are reportedly poor at spotting fraud in real time, as it occurs. As a result, consumers must spot fraud for themselves. If they don’t, they could be stuck holding the check for someone else, or may even face bankruptcy to protect themselves.

Facts on World Cup Fraud

According to online technology publication The Register, various fraud efforts are thriving at this year’s World Cup:

• You may have won: A favored trick of fraudsters is to promise free World Cup tickets or cash prizes. These emails simply ask for a small fee as an “administrative” cost. Treat such offers as you would a slide tackle: with extreme caution. And remember, such prizes can only be offered by official World Cup sponsors.
• Scams are already in full force: Sources indicate that at least 419 unique email scams related to the World Cup are already in circulation. Most of these scams originate from Nigeria-based IP addresses.
• Beware of soccer-themed applications: Some of these scam emails promise exciting soccer applications or videos with the download of an attached file. These files may generate pop-up software that records your computer activity. To prevent infection by such malware, only open files from addresses you trust.
• Emails are not the only source of fraud: Other scam approaches include search engine manipulation, in which fraudsters divert users to download malware that may appear to be video clips of famous soccer players.

Additional Resources:

For general information on preventing identity theft, read this consumer guide from the National Crime Prevention Council.

Even though it’s called a business credit card, the business owner is still personally responsible for the debt incurred at the end of the day. Since the owner is assuming this risk already, it makes sense to use a personal credit card for purposes such as funding or any other expense that you can’t pay back right away. This way the Credit CARD Act will provide the protection you need when carrying a balance.

A personal credit card offers much more predictability and stability for someone managing a business. For instance, the credit card company cannot increase the interest rate on existing balances and cannot apply the penalty APR until you are 60 days delinquent. The Credit CARD Act also enforces a payment allocation system for personal cards that is more advantageous for the cardholder. Credit card companies do not have to adhere to such restrictions when it comes to business credit cards.

Don’t get me wrong, a business credit card offers its own advantages and can play an important role in financing your expenses. For example, a business owner can set individual credit limits for each employee, which makes managing and tracking expenses much more efficient. Business credit cards also often offer higher credit lines, making it a more effective spending tool when multiple people are using the same account.

These factors make business credit cards an excellent choice – even better than personal credit cards – when used as a charge card. In other words, it is my recommendation that you use a business credit card for making company purchases, but only those purchases that you plan to pay back in full at the end of each month.

When making decisions around financing your business, you should take advantage of what both business and personal credit cards have to offer. The combination of the two will give you the most purchasing power while allowing you to fund your business without being subjected to the whim of credit card companies.

The CardHub.com study focused on consumer debt data from the Federal Reserve’s G19 report in conjunction with quarterly charge off data to determine how much of the decline in consumer credit card debt is actually due to consumers paying down their debt versus bad debt being written off. The study also made projections on how much debt consumers will accumulate in subsequent quarters of 2010.

What we found is a strong indication that consumers might be falling into pre-recession habits, which we cannot afford in our fragile economy. One of the main contributors to the recession was that consumers had more debt than their income justified. In the third quarter of 2007, the debt-to-income ratio was 13.92 percent according to Federal Reserve data – this is higher than any period going back to the early 1980s.

Recently, we have seen a substantial decrease in outstanding credit card debt, from $973.2 billion at the end of 2007 to $829.4 in April of this year, and the debt-to-income ratio was down to 12.60 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. Unfortunately the CardHub.com study proves that most of the reduction in these numbers is actually the direct result of people becoming delinquent on their payments and credit card companies having no choice but to write the bad debt off the books. Regardless of how the debt came down, however, it is important that we take advantage of the lower debt level now and not allow it to come back up.

With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent (seasonally adjusted) – almost twice what it was three years ago – our economy simply cannot sustain pre-recession debt levels. Other fundamental weaknesses in the economy, such as a huge federal deficit, make it even more important that consumers remain fiscally responsible and are diligent in paying down their credit card debt in order to avoid future hardships.

The new payment allocation rules state that any payment above the minimum must be applied to the balance with the highest APR first. While this is an improvement from the previous payment allocation rules, it still offers no benefit to people who can only afford to pay the minimum payment each month – that’s 29 percent of Americans according to a FINRA National Survey.

That means that almost one in three people are still having their payments applied to their lowest APR balance first – allowing credit card companies to delay them from paying down their most expensive debt. For people paying above the minimum, there is only marginal benefit depending on how much more than the minimum they pay each month. The way the law is currently written guarantees that a certain percentage of everyone’s credit card payments will be allocated unfairly.

What’s worse is that originally there was, in fact, a pro-consumer version of the bill that stated that the entire payment should be applied to the balance with the highest APR. On February 11, 2009, Senator Dodd introduced a bill to the Senate (S.414) that proposed a payment allocation system in which:

“…the card issuer shall apply the payment first to the card balance bearing the highest rate of interest, and then to each successive balance bearing the next highest rate of interest, until the payment is exhausted.”
(S.414)

Unfortunately, this section was amended during negotiations in the committee process with one tiny clause. The bill signed into law states, “…the card issuer shall apply amounts in excess of the minimum payment amount first to the card balance bearing the highest rate of interest…”
(H.R.627)

It’s interesting to see that through our legislative process, the addition of a few words can completely dilute one of the main objectives of a bill. In this case, a major provision of a law that is meant to protect consumers is set up in a way that ensures that the people who need the most help get the least. It allows credit card companies such as Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, and Citibank to continue consumer-unfriendly payment allocation practices with the backing of the law.

In order to have full control of how your debt is paid down, it is my recommendation that you avoid mixing and matching transactions on any single card. You should have a separate credit card for each type of balance – one card for your purchases and one for balance transfers.

This is because if you only pay close to the minimum, you won’t be able to pay off your highest APR balance until you have finished paying off all of the lower APR balances. This could be a big problem if, for example, you have $1,000 in new purchases at 15% APR that you cannot pay down until you pay off your $10,000 in balance transferred debt at 7% APR.

While taking measures to keep your transactions separate will help, the final resolution of unfair payment allocation must come from the Federal Reserve. It is time for the Federal Reserve to act in addressing this loophole before any politicians get involved. My hope is that the Federal Reserve has learned its lesson and will no longer remain passive while credit card companies engage in unfair and deceptive practices. By taking action the Federal Reserve will ensure both a level playing field for credit card companies to compete and a payment structure that will protect consumers.

When my husband and I had our first child, we went to talk to a life-insurance agent. Our agent suggested that term-life insurance would be the most affordable option for us. We were new parents, and therefore paranoid, so we covered my husband for $600,000 and me for $500,000. This would be enough to support us in a manner in which the survivor would like to become accustomed, while also saving enough for Babykins to head to an Ivy-League school in 2018. Good plan.

We learned that we would be paying more than the national average for our coverage: my husband had only recently quit smoking, and I was still heavily overweight from my  pregnancy. So, note that you will only get the best rates if you’re as healthy as can be. Two years later, my husband was still off of cigarettes, and after a lab test proved it, his rates dropped.

Once we had our second child and were a little more blasé about the whole thing, we returned to our life-insurance agent. We felt that we were over-insured — our credit card debt was paid off, and the only other debt on our books was in the form of student loans, which terminate upon the death of the payee  – and we wanted to see how we could drop our payments.

Peter Coy of BusinessWeek suggests that “ If you die, the death benefit to your survivors should be precisely large enough so they enjoy the same living standard as they did while you were alive.” Well, my spouse is finishing his PhD this semester, and hasn’t yet started living up to his true income potential, so we’re not living high-on-the-hog, yet. As such, it seemed to us that we could cut our coverage by $200k for him and $150k for me. As we were paying about $10 per month per $100,000, this would save us about $40/month, which calculates to $480/year, which pays for a lot of babysitters!

Additionally, life-insurance payouts are tax-free, which calculates to about $80,000 worth of insurance for every $100,000 of lost income.

We share childcare duties and have plenty of time to save for the children’s college fund, and we’re both intense workaholics, so this seemed like enough coverage to keep him or me afloat should the reaper strike one of us.

We are interested in whole-life insurance as an investment vehicle, but at this point, it’s still a bit out of our financial reach. One major benefit of whole-life insurance that I didn’t know is that it is not looked at as income when your college-bound children start filling out their FAFSAs. Thus, it’s a savings/investment vehicle that won’t count against your children’s chances for need-based scholarships. Tricky!

If you’ve already got life insurance through your job, you still might consider purchasing some through an independent agent. Why? Because if your job ends, so will your life-insurance policy. Check the fine print and don’t leave your dependents exposed to financial ruination in your afterlife.

This is a guest post by Joshua Heckathorn, who runs Creditnet.com and holds an MBA and B.S. in Finance. Creditnet is a free resource for anyone who wants to learn more about credit or debt and compare hundreds of the best credit cards online. When Josh isn’t glued to the screen of his Mac, you’re bound to find him at the nearest rock-climbing wall or sushi joint around Seattle.

It’s been just over a month since new rules took effect requiring free credit report sites to prominently disclose that there’s only one place to truly get your credit report for free—AnnualCreditReport.com.

And as you might imagine, FreeCreditReport.com, the best-known site in the business, probably wasn’t too excited about the change. However, no one expected them to just curl up in a ball and go away for good. That’s certainly not their style. So, how did FreeCreditReport.com alter their advertising approach?

If you took a look at their website in early April, the first thing you would’ve noticed was a box on the homepage that described how new federal restrictions made it impossible to provide consumers with a “free” Experian credit report any longer. So, in order to get your Experian-based credit report, and free credit score (or FAKO score, that is), they would now charge a $1 fee for your credit report.

No more free credit reports from FreeCreditReport.com! The good news was that 100 percent of your buck would then be donated to Donorschoose.org, an online charity benefitting classrooms in need around the country. However, the bad news was that in reality not much had actually changed.

You pay a buck, which is then donated to charity, and in return you get a credit report, a “free” credit score, and the exact same 7-day trial membership in FreeCreditReport.com’s Triple Advantage credit-monitoring service. The fact remained that many consumers might still fall into the same old trap the new regulations were attempting to curtail. They would sign up, get their free stuff, forget about it, and then get whacked with a $14.95 monthly charge for a service they may not have wanted in the first place.

Now, a little over a month later, it appears FreeCreditReport.com has flip-flopped and decided to once again return to their original offer. No more $1 charge, donations, or anything sneaky. It looks just like the same old offer. However, it’ll be hard for anyone to get past the gargantuan warning that practically takes up half the homepage—”You have the right to a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com or 877-322-8228, the ONLY authorized source under federal law. Take me to the authorized source.” Check it out—it’s definitely prominent!

I don’t know exactly what prompted the flip-flop so soon, but I’m sure the FTC didn’t appreciate FreeCreditReport.com’s attempt to skirt the new disclosure rules so easily. Or, perhaps consumers weren’t digging the whole $1 approach as much as expected? What do you think?

In the world of free credit reports, this serves as a great reminder that the best advice for consumers is to simply pay close attention to what companies are offering and to read the fine print of any deal. If it’s free, there’s likely a catch, and it’s up to you to be smart and play the game wisely.

1) Neighborhood co-operative: If you have neighbors who are in the same boat, get everyone together to discuss ways you might be able to share the childcare burden. Taking one day off a week in exchange for two or three days of childcare can be a good deal. If you have even one neighbor who stays home with his/her kids, talk about whether they might be willing to accept a pittance in exchange for a morning/day/days of watching your own little one.

2) Go back to school: If you’ve thought of pursuing a Master’s degree or PhD, now might be a good time to get the ball rolling. My husband is completing his PhD and as a working student, he has been supported by the Graduate Employee Organization union. One of the perks of this has been subsidized on-campus childcare. From the time they were 18-months old, both of our boys have attended nursery school/preschool, three days a week, at no cost to us. If your local university offers such a program, you might consider returning to school — plus, as my father always says, “Time spent pursuing education is never wasted.” Especially when free childcare is involved!

3) Bring someone into your home: If you work at home, or even if you don’t, consider hiring someone to come in to watch your children. I have done this with both children to augment option #2 and it worked out very well. If you’re looking for help in the late-afternoon, consider calling your local high school’s/college’s career center and hiring a responsible local student. I also found a three-day-a-week infant sitter through my church; we paid her $10/hour ($11/hour after she earned a certification in infant CPR) and it was well worth the cost.

4) Nana’s nannying service: It goes without saying that if you have family nearby who are of retirement age and home a lot, tap them in to help you out.

5) Pre-tax savings: Check to see whether your employer offers a Dependent Care Account, which is  a type of Flexible Spending Account that allows you to save up to $5,000 of pre-tax dollars specifically for childcare or elder care. Additionally, Uncle Sam might give you a break if you spend after-tax dollars on childcare, in the form of the Dependent Care Tax Credit.

6) Swap your schedule: If you and your partner have any flexibility at work, see if you can change your schedules so that one of you is home with the kid(s) as much as you can afford. Do not confuse this with working at home, though — chances are, if you’re watching a child, you’re not going to get a whole lot of work done, unless it’s naptime.

Knowing this, imagine that you go on a trip to Europe and spend $3,000. You use your credit card for most of your purchases because, in addition to the advantages above, you earn rewards in the form of extra cash or airline miles for every purchase you make. At each point of sale, the merchant asks if you would like to convert your transaction from the local currency into U.S. dollars. You say yes every time, and are satisfied with seeing your transaction in a currency that you are familiar with.

When you get home and receive your credit card bill, however, you are astonished to find that while you were in Europe you were charged almost $300 more than the value of the things you bought. When you closely examine the receipts, you see that there is almost a 10 percent mark up on all of your transactions.

This extra 10 percent is due to a combination of two things: foreign transaction fees and Dynamic Currency Conversion fees. A foreign transaction fee is fairly typical, and is assessed by most credit card companies when you make purchases abroad – this is usually around 2- 3 percent of your purchase. To keep your costs down while traveling, it may be worth applying for a no foreign fee credit card before you go. Capital One offers the most no foreign transaction fee credit cards of any other issuer.

Dynamic Currency Conversion on the other hand, is a technique that merchants use to make extra cash on electronic transactions made by travelers. They offer to convert your transaction into your home currency, but in doing so charge a fee as high as 7 percent of your purchase to do the conversion, then pocket the difference. This can be easily avoided by simply insisting that your transactions are in the local currency every time.

Another thing you should consider when traveling with a credit card, is which credit card networks are accepted in the country to which you are traveling. The credit cards most accepted worldwide, by a large margin, are credit cards on the VISA and MasterCard networks. American Express also has a global network, but acceptance varies greatly based on the country. The more developed the country, the more American Express is on par with VISA and MasterCard. Discover Card is the least useful card overseas, as it is rarely accepted outside the U.S.

If you’re traveling in Europe, you will notice that most European countries use chip-and-PIN technology for their credit cards. These are smart cards with embedded microchips that are authenticated automatically using a PIN. They are much more secure than the magnetic stripe credit cards that we use in the U.S., so most merchants will want to see your passport for identification purposes before they will allow you to use your magnetic stripe card. Therefore, be sure to carry it with you at all times.

Finally, to avoid any unnecessary headache while on your trip, make sure to notify your credit card company of your travel plans before you leave. The last thing you want is to be without a means of spending, and this will assure that they will not suspend your credit card due to suspicious charges made outside the country.

Now that you have the information you need, a credit card will provide you with a hassle-free trip. Because of credit cards favorable exchange rates, you can rest easy knowing that you’re getting the most for your money – especially if you’re using a no foreign transaction fee credit card and always doing your transactions in the local currency. Make sure you compare credit card offers to get a credit card that not only has no foreign fee, but also gives you the most in terms of rewards. If you know what to look out for and plan accordingly, there is no better way to go.

Disclosure: CardHub.com, is owned by the same parent company as this blog.

Empty it. No cheating here. Take every single thing out of your closet. This is best accomplished with a not-too-complimentary friend. As you are taking things out, divide them into three piles: Keep, Donate, Throw Away. The Donate and Throw Away items should be placed in black plastic lawn-and-leaf bags, which are taken immediately to the porch once filled so as to minimize what I call “stuff-divesting remorse.” I love Peter Walsh’s tip: The garbage bags are hungry. Feed them often.

Note: I like to lean my floor-length mirror up against the wall for a slightly more slimming effect.

Tame Your Keep Pile: First, take your obviously wintertime clothes out of the pile, sort them into summertime-storage bins, and put them away. Then, hold each remaining warmer-weather item up against you and check yourself out in a full-length mirror. For the stuff you’re not sure about, try it on and ask your (again, n0t-too-complimentary) friend. Rejects go in the Donate pile. Once you have tamed your Keep pile, spread tops and bottoms out on your bed or hang them on doors. Try each item with every other item and see if you can’t find some on-trend options. If you’re a trendster, look for ways to inject splashes of animal print or metal accessories from years-gone-by. If you have something you love but it looks dated, take it to someone in your area who does alterations and ask for more modern suggestions. Also add anything with holes or frayed belt loops to the alterations pile. New belt loops on an otherwise serviceable pair of trousers spiff up the whole look.

Think “Hospitable”: How will the items in your Keep pile fit back into your closet? What types of organizing accessories will help you keep your “new” clothes in order? Sketch out a wish-list, including the height/length/width dimensions of your empty closet, and take your list to a (yes, I’ll say it) discount big-box store. I’ve heard Target has some of the best bargains around.

Save Time and Money: For maximum time-effectiveness, first empty and shop your closet, then go to your friend’s house and do the same thing there, and then go together to buy your new closet accessories (try to keep each other to a $10/$20 budget). The very next day that a tailor shop is open, drop off your items. Only once you have everything in your closet and spiffed up should you make a shopping list for items you need to fill in the blanks.