Living with credit

Millions of Americans get Social Security payments but have no bank accounts. Under a program announced Friday, the federal government would give these "unbanked" Social Security recipients the option of withdrawing their benifits via a new debit card.

As shoppers head to the stores post-Christmas to take advantage of sales or return unwanted presents, gift card stories continue to make news.

A new Charles Schwab survey examining teens' attitudes, behaviors and concerns about money reveals that teens are overconfident and undereducated. Parents need to work harder to make sure teens are prepared for the financial real world.

InformationWeek and New York's WNBC report that a New York software engineer was able to gain access to the operating system for the credit card reader's touch-screen display, which is meant for presenting ads and short videos to riders, as well as enabling them to pay their fare with a credit card.

Men's Health put together a list of cities in its November issue with the worst personal debt, "Is Your City A Debt Trap?" and gave grades from A+ to F.

The U.S. lost a round Friday in its effort to clamp down on people who sit at home and use their credit cards to gamble on the Internet. In an unusual ruling, the World Trade Organization ruled against the U.S. and in favor of the offshore gambling haven of Antigua. The odd part: The ruling OK'd piracy.

While it's mostly impossible to get by in modern-day American life without a credit card, there is no required education on credit. Many consumers find themselves into deep debt merely because they weren't taught how to manage money . That's why I was delighted to hear that the Family Credit Counseling Service based in Rockford, Ill. has launched an educational campaign called Stop. Think. Save!

What do you do with your credit cards when they're worn, expired or no longer fit in your wallet? Rock, paper, scissors?

What do you think people do with tax rebates, repay credit card debt or spend the money? In a newly released paper from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, three economists find that most of us saved a little and spent a little. But the picture was worse for one group of people: Those nearly maxed out on their credit cards. For them, it represented an opportunity to rack up more debt.

The Associated Press reports police in Rancho Cordova, Calif., are giving drivers a holiday season surprise -- pulling people over for good driving and then rewarding them with $5 Starbucks gift cards.

My stories today on gas and oil prices in 2008, and about how many people will have to borrow money or freeze this winter, touched a nerve, judging from your e-mails.

Credit card readers may have been installed in nearly half of all New York taxi cabs, but that doesn't mean that cabbies are welcoming plastic with open arms. In fact, Big Apple cab drivers are pretty hostile to card payments.

A slew of "convenience" checks in the mail remind me that shredders are a thoughtful holiday gift.

What really happens to people who take out payday loans...

New statistics just out from the Federal Reserve Board give weight to what many of us know from our day-to-day lives. We're writing fewer checks these days to pay the bills.It's not that we're not paying our bills, but that...

"I'm sorry, but this card has been rejected," the snooty waiter says. Your companions around the table stare and you can't meet anyone's eyes as you go shifting through your wallet for another credit card that perhaps will go through.

Sorry. It just doesn't happen that way any more ...

What time is your credit card payment due? Yes, not what date is it due (though that, of course, is important). But do you know the cut-off time your credit card company sets for processing payments? For many credit card...

The audience listens intently as the speaker schools them on getting rid of credit card debt."Debt is a sickness and credit cards are an easy way to get sick," he says. I sit, taking notes. It's not a personal finance...

The San Francisco Gate just reported that tween sensation Miley Cyrus (a.k.a. Hannah Montana), daughter of achy-breaky legend Billy Ray Cyrus, frequently gets in trouble from her parents for her spending habits. More recently, the then 14-year-old (she just turned 15) found herself in time out for losing her credit card.

When you are young and first learning about credit and personal finance, it can be a struggle to digest everything all at once. For those just starting on the path of financial freedom, I have put together several resources to help along the way.

A friend recently burned me a book on CD called "Life's Little Annoyances." It's about real people who had enough of something that massively annoyed them and did something about it. One vignette is about a successful woman who was furious that every time she went out to dinner with her husband, the waiter automatically handed him the bill. Never once was it given to her -- even when she gestured that she'd take it.

Credit cards have become the great equalizers between the haves and have nots. Even when they know they can't afford it, people with very little income can get the $399 iPhone, the iPods, the Xbox 360 games and other high-priced...

Have you ever tried to cancel a credit card? Maybe you weren't too pleased with the credit card issuer and wanted to voice your displeasure with the quality of the customer service. Perhaps you closed the account while bargain shopping...

It's every party animal's worst nightmare: Spending a wild night of fun at a bar or club only to later realize that your credit card has been charged thousands more than you remember spending. In August, this happened to Thomas Salter, a Georgia Tech alum who celebrated college graduation with a few friends and an American Express card he shares with his father.

Hello, dear readers. I'm Emily, the editorial assistant and a blogger here at CreditCards.com. You may wonder how much a recent college grad could possibly know about credit cards and personal finance, but believe me, I have learned plenty of lessons on the road to adulthood. Through my job here I have also learned so much, and I am eager to share my new knowledge with other credit neophytes.

I grew up without much exposure to credit cards. My mom mostly wrote checks, and my dad (a criminal defense attorney) paid for everything in cash. I was taught to save until you could buy something, which is still a great lesson. My first major purchase was a Sega Genesis in first grade, which I still own (and still works). I painstakingly saved my $1.25 weekly allowance until I could afford it.

We're raising a generation of kids bound for a plastic culture. That's a world where paper currency is obsolete, where you buy and sell goods and services through electronic, wireless or remote transfers of dollars, pounds and Euros. But you...