After walking in last night to find yet another stack of my roommate's mail sitting on the counter, I started to wonder why he got so much more mail than I did.

Sure, most of it was junk, but I think I saw (without being nosey - come on, now) a few bills sprinkled in there as well. Then I remembered I had been paperless for a couple of years now, and how much that had reduced the "crap" mail that I had been receiving for years.

It got me thinking, 'Why doesn't he just go paperless?' Then I thought a little further ... 'Why don't we ALL go paperless?!'

Scanning through your checking account can be particularly challenging in late-December. Between holiday gifts, trips home and anything else that may come up during this crazy (and expensive) time of year, it's easy to overlook a small charge amongst perhaps dozens.

And yet, as I perused through my account the other day, a nondescript and completely infuriating charge caught my eye: "$8.00 - Monthly Fee"

Um... what?

One myth we've covered numerous times on Creditnet is the idea that simply owning a credit card will help you improve credit. And while that's initially true, in order to accrue some real credit history you actually have to use your credit card. Plus, if you remain dormant for an excessive amount of time, your credit issuer may up and close your account altogether.

In the words of Stephanie Tanner, "How rude!"

We've written time and again about the risks of Payday Loans, but it's worth a refresher with the holidays in full swing. PayDay loans are for real emergencies, and can be a credit (and financial) killer if treated otherwise. Their high interest rates can balloon if you default, and there are horror stories out there of consumers botching a PayDay loan so badly that they end up owing 300%+ of what they were originally lent.