Protecting yourself

A lot of time, money and energy go into figuring out why people make the wrong choices when paying off debts.

For example, when faced with multiple debts with varying interest rates, people tackle the debt using one of two strategies: paying the smallest debt off first (known as the infamous "snowball strategy"), or paying off the debts with the higher interest rates first (the more logical approach, which, if followed, gets you out of debt faster).

I'm ashamed to say that, for quite a number of years, if not decades, I was a snowballer.

My friend was conned out of $4,000 from a man she met on an online dating website. Sadly, the Better Business Bureau reports that 2011 was an active year for scam artists.

Sometimes the difference between keeping $150 and losing it is one simple phone call.

It's a simple lesson: Persistence pays. It's also one that every personal finance expert worth their salt will tell you is among the most important to learn. No one cares about your money as much as you do, and to keep it, sometimes you have to fight for it.

I learned that the hard way today during one incredibly irritating morning of back-and-forth with a major airline.

Credit card companies know what features their customers are looking for and naturally use the information to make their terms sound as compelling as possible. For example, they may capitalize on existing legislation designed to protect consumers, and they definitely make liberal use of "the fine print" to qualify their glorious-sounding offers.

In other words, many of their policies aren't as great as they make them out to be, so don't be fooled. Know what you're really getting before you sign up. After all, the last thing you want to do is make an important financial decision based on terms that you don't understand.

My blog about my reluctance to share personal information when signing up for a bone marrow donation program was selected for the 328th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.

It sounded like a harmless request this past weekend: Sign up to be a bone marrow donor to potentially help people who need life-saving transplants.

I was among tens of thousands of people who packed in to a popular live music festival (Austin City Limits) held in Austin, Texas, each year. I had just arrived and was walking the perimeter of the festival, stopping in at different vendor booths. At one booth, a smiling man approached me asking if I'd like to sign up to be in a database of potential bone marrow donors. Ok, I said, walking under the canopy.

I was willing to give up my bone marrow -- a process that can be extremely painful -- but not my personal information.

The first year of college for many freshman means getting their first student credit card. While the Credit CARD Act of 2009 severely restricts handing out plastic to those under 21, you can get a card if your parent co-signs on the card or if you can prove that you have the income to pay the bills. Your first credit card can be a great personal finance tool, but can also bring disaster if used recklessly.

A college student I know recently asked me if I had some tips for using his first credit card, so I thought I would share my ideas here as well. And for more money and credit advice, check out 10 of my favorite blog posts from personal finance bloggers from the past week.

A headline from Michigan caught my eye this morning: "101-year-old Detroit woman evicted in foreclosure."

The Associated Press article detailed the plight of Texana Hollis and her son, Warren. Sheriff's deputies went to the home she has lived in for nearly six decades and put the woman and her two adult sons (ages 66 and 69) out. Warren Hollis told WXYZ-TV that he hadn't paid the mortgage in several years and ignored eviction notices.

If you're going to do that, think about the collateral damage that you may be causing to people who depend you on -- an elderly parent who lives with you, your children or spouse. They would face the embarrassment and disruption caused by a "surprise" eviction or a civil judgment for a delinquent credit card bill.

Would you lie to your bank if it meant protecting yourself from identity theft?

Although some cardholders indicate they would stretch the truth to keep themselves safe -- telling the bank a credit card was lost or stolen when, in fact, that wasn't true -- lying could actually end up hurting you, experts say.

As large parts of drought-ridden, wind-blown Central Texas burned, my wife and I realized we needed to talk.

"If we had to evacuate because wildfires were approaching our house," I asked, "what would we take?"

It's just a hypothetical question for us, thank heavens. However, that's exactly the time when you should have the conversation -- not when you've just gotten a reverse 911 call telling you to evacuate as a roaring wildfire nears.

I thought I'd try something new I hope you find useful: Today's reading list. It's headlines and other reports on credit, debt and payments systems that I found newsworthy, interesting or odd enough to be worth passing along.

For the second time this year, my credit card's security has been compromised.

Back in January, I learned that my credit card was reported stolen by FIA Card Services (a Bank of America subsidiary) after I got an email notification from the AAA Texas credit monitoring service about a change to my credit report. At that time, when I called the bank, they confirmed that I was among a group of cardholders who had their information possibly exposed due to transactions at an unnamed merchant. They had decided to preemptively issue me a new card, which I later got in the mail.

And in a case of near déjà vu, late last week, I received both another notification from AAA and a letter containing a new replacement card from FIA. So I decided to find out what merchant was the source of this latest breach.

It's Day 1 for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- the new federal agency charged with watching out for consumers when it comes to credit cards and other financial products.

Starting today, consumer complaints about credit cards will be collected by a single government agency -- rather than a hodgepodge of regulators that existed before.

Help us kick the tires on this new complaint system. If you have filed a complaint, let us know how it went. Was the form easy to understand? Did you experience any technical difficulties on the website?

Would you offer up your Facebook friends for money?

American Express wants you to. The credit card issuer launched a "Link, Like, Love" social media campaign asking cardholders to allow AmEx to tap their circle of friends, interests and other "likes" in order to offer customized shopping discounts.

Next time you travel, remember this: Hotels are always a hotspot for credit card fraud scams.

Since I've spent my share of time traveling over the last few months -- for everything from a college buddy's wedding to a family trip to Disney World - stories about credit card scams at hotels have caught my eye recently. Though the scams feature different clever tactics, each has the same intent: getting a hold of a tourist's credit card info.

And they all drive the point home that, no matter how tired you are from travel, no matter how crabby your toddler's being that day, no matter how sunburned you get waiting in line at the water park, you need to keep your guard up when you're traveling.

Run for the Borders!

I told you back in January and now I really mean it: If you have a Borders gift card you've been meaning to redeem, do it now. Now. Let the dog walk himself. Skip the weekly lunch bunch. Tell your boss you have to leave early because you have to meet the sprinkler guy. Whatever. But go as soon as you can, either directly to the store, or online, and cash out that card.

After failing to sell itself off, the company is liquidating, with stores beginning to close as soon as Friday.

You know that saying about the cobbler's family going without shoes? The same goes for the personal finance writer who never follows her own advice.

Just last week, I put the finishing touches on an article for CreditCards.com about avoiding credit card mistakes while you're traveling. All the experts agreed: Since credit cards do occasionally get stolen, write down all your card numbers, along with issuer phone numbers, and store them in a safe place. "Ooh, smart advice!" I remember thinking.

That's why I was pretty quick to recognize the irony when that very afternoon, my purse, including my wallet full of credit cards, was stolen from my car at the neighborhood pool. And no, I didn't have my credit card numbers written down.

For a long time, I've been a fan of the cartoons in "The New Yorker" magazine.

One caught my eye back in 2000, when I was new to writing and editing personal finance stories.

In the cartoon, Dad's sitting on the couch with his son, as Mom stands in the background, fear in her eyes. A computer is in the other room. "It's very important that you try very, very hard," Dad says to his son, "to remember where you electronically transferred Mommy and Daddy's assets."

Eleven years of electronic progress later, many of us are carrying around smartphones and tablet devices. With them come new and even easier ways for our children to drain our bank accounts -- accidentally, through games aimed at children who lack a firm grasp on the difference between real and imaginary money.

News organizations that have sniffed around hacker chatrooms say that some of their denizens are offering 2.2 million credit card numbers they say they hacked from Sony PlayStation's database of online users.

Sony, meanwhile, is trying to reassure its customers, saying there's still no evidence that the card numbers were hacked, and besides, they were stored in an encrypted fashion.

When you signed up to play KillStation or another game online on your PlayStation, I bet you didn't think there would be any real life danger.

Now you know differently.

Sony, which runs the PlayStation network, announced Tuesday that between April 17 and April 19, data from its 77 million account holders was "compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network."

Here's what consumers should know about the situation -- and do to protect their real-world finances: