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In the past year, millions of Americans have significantly cut their use of credit cards in an effort to take control of their financial lives. But some people are taking an even more radical step -- going cold turkey on plastic and paying for everything with good ol' cash.

A new report shows children are much more likely to be the victims of identity theft than adults, and that the crimes can go unnoticed for years. Children make tempting targets because they aren't going to be using their identities for a long time and parents don't usually monitor their...

For years, renters who got behind on their housing payments could do so without worrying about the impact that a late payment would have on their credit rating. Next year that's going to change. One of the big three credit bureaus, Experian, recently began collecting data about consumer rental...

Your credit score impacts your ability to get out of debt and stay out of debt. The worse your credit score, the higher the interest rate you will be charged on money you borrow. The better your score, the less your debt will cost you and the quicker you'll be able to pay it off.

Get a free credit report once a year from AnnualCreditReport.com, a site sponsored by the three major credit reporting companies, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. You can request your free credit report online, over the phone or via the mail. The last two options are not instantaneous,...

If you thought it was hard to qualify for loans and obtain credit in 2010, wait until 2011, when lenders start using freshly updated, more rigorous versions of two popular credit-scoring systems. Fair Isaac, creator of the widely-used FICO score, recently rolled out an enhanced version of one of...

Credit card delinquencies plunged in third quarter as consumers pay down debts and shun card debt. The ratio of bankcard borrowers 90 days of more delinquent on one or more their credit cards fell 24.6% year-on-year in the third quarter, according to TransUnion. More than 8 million consumers...

A smaller percentage of mortgage holders were delinquent on their payments in the third quarter than in the second quarter, although the percentage of delinquencies remains up from the same period last year.

Several data points this week confirm an ominous new trend among desperate consumers: They have stopped paying their mortgages but they're continuing to pay off their credit cards so they can keep buying staples, like food.

If harassing calls from debt collectors are keeping you from answering the phone -- or stressing you out -- you're not alone. Amid the tough economy, debt collection activity has intensified, with some debt collectors engaging in unfair, abusive or illegal practices. The Federal Trade Commission...