Did you receive emails from credit card companies over the weekend that read something like the following? "Recently, we were notified of a system breach at Epsilon, a third-party vendor that provides marketing services to a number of companies. The information obtained was limited to the customer name and email address of some credit card customers. No account information or other information was compromised and therefore there is no reason to re-issue a new card."

Are you confronted with a possible short sale or foreclosure on your home? If so, you may be wondering how long it will take your FICO scores to FULLY recover after one of these bombshells hits your credit reports. It's a great question, and it happens to be one that we receive emails about every day. Well, now we have some hard data from FICO that finally helps clear up all the confusion around FICO scores, short sales, and foreclosures.

But that's not to say that St. Patrick's Day isn't mighty. March 17th is about celebrating a nation's heritage as much as it is to indulge in a pint or two (or three). St. Paddy's is often overlooked in favor of such blockbuster boozing holidays as New Year's Eve and the 4th of July. But does it deserve to be stuck in the minor leagues of spending?

 UPDATE: This offer is no longer available. If you're a fan of flying Southwest, you're probably also a fan of their easy-to-understand frequent flyer program— Rapid Rewards. Fly 8 roundtrips anywhere, and get one roundtrip free. Couldn't have been much more simple than that! Unfortunately, as of March 1st, Southwest's frequent flier program just got a lot more complicated. The major change is that they will now issue points instead of credits, and your points will have different values depending upon what type of fare you choose for your award. I'm not a big-time Southwest flier, but I think it's safe to say that a lot of their customers won't be happy with this change. I've had several friends already talk about getting rid of their Southwest Rapid Rewards credit cards since they are moving to a new points-based system too. What I've been telling them is that if you're looking for a new airline rewards credit card, you should really check out this huge promotion that Capital One is starting today for its Capital One Venture Rewards card.

Dear Creditnet: I recently applied for a 0% interest credit card and was declined because I apparently have "too much open credit." What exactly does this mean?

I have good credit and pay all my bills on time, so I was really surprised when I got declined. What should I do next?