Are you ready to take matters into your own hands and improve your credit? If so, congratulations for having the courage to do something about your credit problems. Many people choose to avoid the issue in every way possible, so you are taking an important step in the right direction. Making the time to repair your own credit is also an excellent alternative to paying an expensive credit repair agency to accomplish tasks you can complete right from the comfort of your home.

Identity theft scammers never grow tired of finding new ways to deceive the unknowing into divulging personal information over the phone. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission recently reported that identity theft scammers are hard at work using the looming election day as a new way to steal your personal information. Don't be fooled - protect yourself and your credit score!

It makes logical sense that consumers should have the power to choose how their payments apply to credit card debt. Of course, some must go towards paying interest charges if a balance is carried, but the rest of the payment should be applied to the debt with the highest interest rate, right? That would clearly be in the best interest of the consumer. Unfortunately, that's not how it works in the credit world. Hidden deep in the dark shadows of your credit card's terms and conditions, there is a section known as the "Payment Allocation Provision" - a credit card company's best friend.

Piggybacking, a technique that allows consumers with good credit to boost other's credit scores by adding them as an authorized user, will live on. If you haven't heard the term before, it's not a new thing. Parents have used the technique for many years to help their children build solid credit at a young age, but in recent years private companies have begun to take advantage of the practice by connecting bad-credit consumers with good-credit consumers for a fee.