The legendary king of late night TV Johnny Carson might have said it best years ago, “Happiness is your dentist telling you it won’t hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill.”

Unfortunately, these days, the pain or thought of having a dentist drilling in our mouth with sharp instruments isn’t the only thing keeping us away from dental appointments.

Chase, in partnership with British Airways, recently announced a new travel rewards credit card for people with excellent credit that essentially provides any first-time Chase cardholder with two free roundtrip-transatlantic flights within the first three months of being open.

Consumers receive 50,000 bonus miles immediately upon making their first transaction with a British Airways Visa Signature Card and another 50,000 miles after spending $2,500 in the first three months. Each of these rewards bonuses can be redeemed for a World Traveler Economy class round-trip ticket from the U.S. to anywhere in the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany Ireland, Luxemburg, Switzerland and The Netherlands.

When deciding where to keep your money, it is a good idea to consider the health of your bank. There was a time, not too long ago, that it seemed as though banks were failing left and right. While the rate of bank closures has slowed, you still need to think about what it could mean if your bank were to fail. It’s true that, if your bank is protected by the FDIC, you will get your deposit back, up to certain limits. However, just getting your deposit back isn’t always enough.

Issues Associated with Bank Closures

If you enjoy going to the movies, as I do, you may be aware that AMC Theatres is restructuring its rewards program.  While the replacement of the MovieWatchers program with the new AMC Stubs system is being billed as an improvement made in response to customer feedback, the jury is still out as far as I’m concerned.  Why?  Well, I’m not thrilled that I now have to pay $12 a year to belong to a movie theater rewards program.  Movies, at 10-plus dollars a pop, are expensive enough as it is; what am I getting for my extra $12?

Why don’t we compare and find out?

All investors should have a system they use to approach investing. The ultimate goal of this system is to help the investor effectively make consistent investing decisions without being tossed to and fro by market conditions.

People who suffer the greatest investing losses are those who are constantly getting in and out of ‘hot’ stocks and those who buy and sell according to the dips and spikes of the market. Not only is this approach less-than-profitable, it is also stressful and time consuming.

On March 9, Capital One began a promotion centered on its popular Venture Card that could ultimately result in thousands of customers easily doubling their airline miles, while also increasing the flexibility of their use.

As part of the Capital One Venture Card “Match My Miles” program, the financial giant has pledged to match as many as 100,000 already-earned airline miles for each consumer that opens a Venture Card until May 13 or one billion miles have been given out, whichever comes first. Consumers who do not currently have Capital One accounts will also receive 10,000 bonus miles if they spend at least $1,000 during the first three months their Venture Cards are open.

Anyone who has ever been in credit card debt knows just how burdensome it can be. Debt seemingly pervades your entire life, limiting your disposable income, causing stress, and potentially dragging down your credit score. If debt is mishandled, not only will these effects be magnified, but the possibility of a lawsuit will arise as well. As a result, it’s no surprise that indebted consumers are typically desperate for a solution. They want to stop hemorrhaging money on interest, and most importantly, they want to have one less worry on their minds.

A debt settlement—agreeing to payoff your defaulted debt with a lump-sum payment that is less than what you actually owe—can therefore seem like an extremely attractive option for consumers who are in serious financial trouble. However, in jumping at such an opportunity, many people fail to fully consider the overall pros and cons and ultimately benefit less than they initially imagined they would.

Back in 2009, Wallet Blog broke the story that Chase had reneged on a promise it made to certain customers not to increase the interest rates on balances transferred to the company’s credit cards. While Chase did not increase interest rates per se, the company did begin assessing $10 monthly fees that increased the cost of consumer debt nonetheless. Working together with the New York Times, Wallet Blog made the story national news, causing then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to threaten legal intervention against the financial giant. As a result, Chase repealed the monthly fees and even provided refunds to the customers it had already charged.

Such actions were taken because, from a regulatory standpoint, there is no practical difference between interest rates and fees. Both are considered finance charges. In its Federal Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation defines finance charges as:

There has recently been a great deal of talk about rules proposed by the Federal Reserve that seek to require credit card companies to consider the merits of applicants based on individual rather than household income. These rules, critics contend, stand to significantly affect stay-at-home mothers by preventing them from establishing credit history in their own names, which would be extremely important to garnering a loan, renting or buying a property, and/or landing a job in the case of divorce or the death of a spouse.

Given that 2010 Census figures show men to be the sole breadwinners in 28.2% of couples with children under the age of 18 and women to be the only earners in about 4% of such families, roughly 7.3 million women and 963,000 men would face a difficult time garnering access to credit if the claims made by the rules’ detractors prove to have merit.

Two common complaints about the new credit card law, which celebrated its one-year anniversary on Feb. 22, 2011, are that it led to the extinction of 0% balance transfer credit cards with no fee and that it caused increased interest rates. One of these complaints is rooted in fact, but neither serves as a valid criticism of the law.

Yes, the CARD Act’s passage effectively signaled the beginning of the end for credit cards that offered 0% APR on balance transfers and had no fee for the service. However, no one really has the right to complain about this.

Your credit score is important. You’ve heard it a thousand times, from your parents, financial advisors, TV advertisements, and seemingly everyone in between. They are, of course, correct. Your credit score impacts how much you will pay for a credit card, mortgage, or any number of loans. Many things affect your credit score, but there are also numerous factors that play no role in how this all-important number is computed. Here are twelve things that you don’t need to worry about when it comes to establishing a good credit score.

Anything not in your credit report - There is a wide range of information in your credit report, including payment history, level of indebtedness, length of credit history, and types of credit used. Your credit score won’t take into account anything outside of the credit report.

Debt collectors make their money by successfully getting you to pay your debt, often with threats that are not even allowed by law. If you find yourself in a situation where debt collectors are hounding you, it’s important to know the rules that govern their conduct in order to deal with them effectively.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act determines the rules for many kinds of collections efforts including dishonored checks, rent, medical bills, utility bills, insurance bills and claims, student loans, credit cards, condo fees, attorney’s fees, judgments, and other personal debts.

In the current economic climate, many of us know people who have lost their jobs. A couple of my good friends have unfortunately felt such ill-effects of the Great Recession, and as I was talking to one of them the other day, I asked about his job search. He explained to me how he was going through the interview process and was optimistic about a few opportunities.

I congratulated him and quipped, “The one good thing about not having a job right now is that you don’t have to file taxes. No forms, no giving back some of your unemployment check; there’s a bright side to that.”

Knowing when and how to dispute accounts on your credit report can make a huge difference in getting inaccurate information removed from your credit profile. Despite some promises to the contrary that you might come across, dispute letters are not the be-all-end-all of the credit repair process. There is no special formula to writing a carefully-worded argument that will convince the credit bureaus to drop your bad credit history as soon as they receive it.

Yet this myth continues to persist, so I thought I’d take the time to set the record straight on disputing your bad credit history. The trick to writing dispute letters that work is that there is no trick; it’s about knowing how and when to use them.

I received an e-mail just the other day from a nice woman living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Go Pack!) who wanted advice about efficiently improving credit standing. You see, her son was a senior in college and had opened a 0% APR credit card because he thought it sounded too good to pass up. He then proceeded to rack up charges which he could not pay for. However, instead of telling his parents about his credit card debt and asking for help, he just ignored the situation, hoping it would go away. After all, he was just a kid and could probably say “I’m sorry, I didn’t know any better,” and all would be forgiven, right? Well, that seemed to be the case for a couple weeks until more and more letters started coming from his issuer using words like “past due” and “account suspended.”

At this point, the young man (whom we’ll call Sean) finally consulted his parents. “What should I do?” he wondered. They told him that he needed to become current on his bill in order to avoid falling deeper into delinquency and incurring more significant credit score damage. Since Sean didn’t have much money of his own, his parents loaned him the cash, effectively closing the account, under the condition that he find a job at school so that he could pay them back.

While many of us might think that the term “statute of limitations” is only relevant to criminal prosecution and TV shows like Law and Order – Special Victims Unit, it’s actually quite important to personal finance matters as well.

In general, a statute of limitations is how long something remains relevant under the law. While it certainly can be used to describe the amount of time following a crime that someone can be prosecuted for committing it, the term may also be used in the context of a lawsuit to recoup credit card debt, for example.

Improving some aspect of one’s health is a popular resolution. Whether it’s a promise to stop smoking, shed those extra pounds or ditch the remote and stop being such a couch potato, being healthier is often at the top of our To-do lists. Keeping our bodies in optimum condition, however, can be a costly proposition. Nutritional supplements, gym memberships or doctors visits can pack a pretty heavy punch to your wallet. Good thing there are healthy choices you can make that will benefit your bank account just as much as your body.

Here are five things you can do to become more physically and financially fit:

[Editor's Note: We recently started using a new service called Offermatic and thought it was great; so we asked the good people at Offermatic.com to write a guest post for Wallet Blog and tell their story]

The deal and offer market is overflowing with group buying companies throwing around offers and deals and coupons and vouchers – you can’t swing a dead cat around the room without hitting a new player in the space. But is anyone really innovating, or are all these companies just different shades of the same? And how much value really exists for the average consumer in daily offers to save on exotic travel, manicures, spa treatments, and cupcakes?

Before talking specifically about long term care insurance, let’s remind ourselves of the function that insurance plays in our lives.

Insurance is our financial defense. Anyone who is attempting to build wealth or move forward financially must be sure that nothing devastating or unexpected will undo years of responsible financial planning. Imagine a person who has slowly been building wealth for the last two decades but does not have health insurance. It only takes one major surgery to burn through hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings.

Parents plan financially for their children’s college educations seemingly from the moment they are born. They set up college funds, save and save some more. However, amidst all of this financial preparation they somehow often forget to ready their children for the financial realities of adult life. Instead, they simply hand them credit cards, pack up their cars and head to school.

It is this lacking financial education that has led, in part, to an adult population that spends beyond its means, engages in unsafe lending practices, and accumulates record amounts of credit card debt . Still, if we decide to instruct our kids how to responsibly manage their money—much as we teach them how to read, tie their shoes, and ride bikes—then perhaps they might avoid a Great Recession-like event in their own adult lives.

Sometimes when individuals start using ‘financial talk’, some of the rest of us get lost in the dust. Phrases like “401(k), 503(b), Traditional IRA, and Roth IRA” sound like another language. As a result, many people are overwhelmed by the many options, and so they choose a terrible alternative – to do nothing.

This is not a strategy I recommend. Instead, slowly wade through all the options and make an informed choice. When it comes to saving for retirement, any choice is better than doing nothing.

We’ve counted down.  We’ve toasted the champagne.  We’ve kissed our sweethearts.  The New Year is upon us, and with this turn of the calendar comes a chance for a fresh start, a cleaning of the slate.  While your goals for making 2011 better than its predecessor most likely pervade all aspects of your life, financial New Year’s Resolutions are particularly popular, especially considering the current financial climate.  Perhaps you want to finally get out of debt.  Maybe all of the ads on TV have psyched you up to improve your credit score.  Or you might want to increase small business profitability or invest more wisely.  Hopefully, whatever your goal may be, this financial resolution will fare better than previous pledges that have fallen by the wayside.  Commit to making this year different, to helping your personal finance objectives outlast the “honeymoon period” after which so many New Years Resolutions die.  The first step in doing so?  Reading the New Year’s Resolution Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.  Look, you’re already on your way!

Editor’s Picks

Everyone likes to save money; however, the ways to save aren’t always obvious. Auto insurance can be costly, but you don’t have to sacrifice an arm and a leg to stay insured. Follow these five tips to save some serious money on your car insurance.

Coming out of the Great Recession, the last thing anyone wants is for financial history to repeat itself. However, when it comes to consumer debt, that is exactly what’s happening. Many people think that overall credit card debt is decreasing just because consumers paid down over $43 billion in debt during the first quarter of 2010. However, this is merely a reflection of what occurred in the same quarter last year. Numbers from the second and third quarters of 2010 show that—like in 2009—consumer debt is actually rising and is on track to wipe out most of the reduction observed in Q1.

According to the Q3 2010 Credit Card Debt Study conducted by CardHub.com, consumer credit card debt increased by almost $6.5 billion in the third quarter of 2010 alone.