Identity theft is when someone gets access to your personal information and uses it to impersonate you.  Usually this impersonation involves using your personal ID information and credit information to purchase things under your name.  Generally a person's identity is stolen by someone getting access to your social security number, credit card numbers, and/or your bank account numbers.  If an identity thief is skilled he can use one or two pieces of this information to find out everything about your current and past financial profile including all your credit card numbers and bank accounts.  Once your identity is stolen a thief can wipe out al of your accounts in a matter of days (if not minutes in some cases).
 

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Generally if you keep your credit balances below 30% of your total available credit and you pay your bills on time you should maintain a good credit score (above 700).

Besides being something your mama used to do when she went to the store, layaway is an arragement between you and a store owner where you buy something (ex: a suit) and pay cash a little at a time.  The store owner keeps the suit until you finish paying the item off (usually over a period of a few weeks or months).
Layaway used to be common when there weren't so many credit cards and store cards around, and is still a great way to buy things because you usually don't have to pay high interest rates on top of the purchase price of an item.  The bad news is that most major stores don't offer layaway anymore because they would rather have you use their store cards (so they can make all the money on those high interest rates). 

There are several types of bankruptcy, but the 2 that apply most directly to a person who cannot pay their bills are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.
 
Chapter 7 This is also known as a "fresh start" bankruptcy, or "liquidation". Your debts are discharged (canceled), but you must give up any nonexempt property to the trustee to pay to your creditors. You can keep secured property if you are current on the payments and continue making the payments regularly.
 

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The worst negative record that you can possibly have on your credit report is a bankruptcy. Usually bankruptcy will stay on your credit report for 7 years, but the effects on your credit report can last for as long as a decade. You probably will not be able to get approved for credit or a loan at all during the first few years after you have filed for bankruptcy, because it has a very large and very negative impact on your perceived capability to repay an obligation.  If you need a car or any major item that you can't pay for in one cash lump sum bankruptcy may not be the option for you.

The simple answer is that in 2010 you can't but whree there's a will there's a way.  Community, help us out with this one.

"Good" is a relative term, but generally a score above 750 is considered adequate for getting the best deals on credit cards, car loans and mortgages.  On the flip side, any score below 700 may make it difficult to get good rates.  In today's tough economic times, credit scores are required to be much higher than in the past as banks are very concerned about lending money without being repaid.

The best way to check your credit report is to go the source - www.myfico.com.  You can sign up for a fee and get your credit report from all three credit agencies (experian, transunion and equifax).  You need to know your score from all 3 agencies because they don't always report the same information.

Even though you are only 1 person, the 3 rating agencies (experian, transunion and equifax) do not have the same information about your credit history.  This is because different stores, banks, etc. report to different rating agencies.  Often times the credit scores are different for each rating agency, and sometimes they differ by alot!

A FICO® score is a way of measuring whether you should get credit and how well you mange your credit without requiring access to their income history or employment status. The FICO score is developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation and is now used by most major credit reporting agencies.

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