Now it’s more important than ever to have a great credit report. Having a solid credit score can save you money. You’ll be able to borrow money at a better interest rate. That can really add up over the life of a loan. Here are eight no-nonsense ways to improve your credit score:

Credit unions exist to help its members. Commercial banks exist to enrich their shareholders. You read that right. Credit unions are unions that exist to help its members. That’s why they often have better interest rates on both loans and deposits. Commercial banks are businesses. Their sole purpose is to figure out how to make more money from its customers (you!). Interest rates are often very low (or nonexistent), loan rates are often competitive, and they always try to sell you new products because you are a customer.

Did you hear? The Federal Reserve is expected today to announce sweeping reforms to credit card rules. The new standards are the biggest changes to hit the credit card industry in years. They echo many of the demands of the people behind the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights: lower interest rates and more reasonable time frames for repayment.

Today's financial maelstrom has consumers fleeing to safe havens to park their hard-earned cash. One place that's largely been off the radar for most folks is the neighborhood credit union. These relatively small financial institutions long have been perceived as antiquated and unable to provide the same services as banks, but just the opposite is true.

By next spring, two of three credit reporting bureaus will use a new model. Fair Isaac, the developer of FICO scores, has made the biggest change to its mathematical credit score model since it was introduced in 1989. Scores will still be on a 300- to 850-point scale. But the company estimates that 40% to 50% of borrowers’ scores could go up or down by more than 20 points because of how the new model fine-tunes the variables it uses to evaluate consumers’ credit use behavior.

Banks and brokerages are enhancing their credit-card reward programs to help customers save more for retirement and reduce their debt. Wells Fargo & Co. is rolling out cash-back credit cards that automatically apply the rebates to pay down loan balances at the bank, while Fidelity Investments unveiled a new Retirement Rewards Card that will apply a 2% rebate earned on purchases to a Fidelity Individual Retirement Account.

We all know just how important our credit score is when we apply for a loan. High credit scores get approved, while low scores do not, subject to other factors of course. But as it turns out, your credit score and credit history affect a lot more than whether you get approved for a loan. In fact, your credit score can have a big impact on more than just loan applications. So with that in mind, here are 7 unexpected ways your credit score and credit history can affect your finances.

You need some cash, you have a credit card, and the logical solution seems to be to get a cash advance using your credit card. You can pay it back later, right? The truth is that cash advances are not a good idea in most instances. Yes, there are times when it seems like a cash advance is the way to go, but in most cases it’s best to avoid this particular feature on your card.

Here is a list of 15 resources (in order) that I found extremely helpful during my credit repair journey. Take a moment to check them out and do yourself a favor by keeping this page handy!

We’ve all heard the call: pay off your credit card debt! This current financial crisis is going to result in tighter lending standards, higher interest rates, and also golden opportunities to invest the cash you’re currently using to pay off debt. Hopefully everyone with debt knows the basics: stop using the card; take it out of your wallet; pay off the highest interest rate first; and pay more than the minimums. This is all great advice, but here are five more ways to pay off your debt even faster.