Right now money and credit, mortgages and loans, banks and credit lenders are not far from the headlines nor from conversations at the dinner table for that matter. So the question is how is your credit status right now?

I can answer only for myself and my family. And the answer is "not so great". We are just about keeping afloat. We've tightened our belts recently (I'll share a bit about how later), but are still being stung by the reparcautions of the careless financial decisions of yester years.

What do I mean by this?These were the days when credit cards came cheap and credit was easy and cheap, out went the one bedroom flat and in came the three bedroom terraced house, added a new kitchen and lots more on credit. Life was good, we both had jobs and prospects for promotion were looking great.

Then the children came, only one of us was now bringing in the money, we were bearly making ends meet. This is the time when we should have cut down on the credit cards and only bought what we have saved for but oh nooo... we continued spending and then the unthinkable happened, my hard working husband lost his Job!

Oh no! On all fronts this was a disaster and it wasn't long before the credit cards and loans started becoming a great problem. We have since recovered but I still shudder at the extent of damage those careless years had damaged our credit history.

1. Buy only what you can afford. This means save up for that new sofa or fridge. Buying on credit is more expensive anyway as you end up paying high interest anyway.

2.If you can avoid it don't use credit cards and if you do best plan of action that has help us is to repay what you spent at the end of the month.

3a. If you have 3 or more credit cards aim to start repaying what is owed on them and once you've cleaned it up don't spoil it by going out and splashing out all over again.

3b. Don't settle for paying the minimum, start paying off the credit card with the highest interest rate and not neccessary the one with the highest amount owed on it. This is a mistake most of us make and we did this too until a friend helped us to see that it was costing us to do this.

4. Don't get small unsecure loans to pay off debts, most of these especially the Pay Day Loan variety are there to get you deeper into financial difficulty, based on the high rate of interest these loans attract.

5. Live according to your means. At the end of the day all those who have done this always usually by pass the difficult financial crunches.

Some of us are a bit unschooled about how finances and the finacial world operate, and therefore credit reports are not things we know or thing about. But you better believe me whether you know it or not you do have one and it can be used against you when you least expect it.

So what is a credit report? This is a list of your credit activites kept by a credit reporting agency or company in huge databases. The list usually include your credit cards and loans, balances on each, payment regularity and any arreas.They usually sell this information on, to banks or finance companies who would need the information before approving an application for credit. It is therefore actually important for you to know what is on your report before you go making an application. There are three major companies in America and United Kingdom.

Equifax PLC - UK / USA

Experian PLC - UK / USA

Callcredit PLC -UK

TransUnion - USA

It is important for you to get your credit report and start managing your credit history now.

Apparently there are over 4 million American who do not have bank accounts, this is an enormous amount of people. They usually are the poor who rely on social security benefits to keep going. Receiving benefits has always been a hit and miss operation for this group of people, as they have to wait on the postman to receive the checks and then on the local Payday outlets to cash the money minus commission, and with no bank account they then carry the money around until its spent or stolen!

Thank goodness the government has now come up with the Direct Express Debit Card, which is to be issued to all the 4 million Americans concerned. This debit card will now mean that even though there is still no credit history, they can now enter the main stream of secure ATM withdrawals and card payments as opposed to loosing money to commission touts etc.

To find out more about this new scheme go to Paper Money Collecting