It will become a bit easier for consumers to dispute changes in their credit reports directly with banks or companies, according to a newly released federal regulation. That regulation would formalize a now-informal practice, giving consumers a firm right to argue directly with companies that provide negative information to the credit bureaus. The bureaus compile information, positive and negative, into credit reports that dictate whether consumers can borrow money and at what rate.

Business credit cards used to be plain-vanilla, no-frills cards that served only as a way to separate business spending from personal spending. Now business credit cards offer as many reward options as personal credit cards. Business cards with miles and frequent flier programs Business owners can now leverage their credit card spending and that of their employees to earn significant travel rewards. Miles earned through spending on business credit cards can be applied to free business travel or given to employees for personal use.

With a deadline fast approaching, few consumers have taken advantage of a court-ordered multimillion dollar settlement with four credit card giants over poorly disclosed fees on foreign transactions. Credit card and debit card users need to file a claim by Jan. 9, 2008, if they hope to get a refund on purchases made in a foreign currency or with a foreign merchant between Feb. 1, 1996, and Nov. 8, 2006. That deadline was established in the settlement of a class-action lawsuit that challenged how banks went about fixing and disclosing information on foreign transaction fees, commonly called currency conversion fees, to customers.

"There is an increasing chess game between issuers of these cards trying to find ways to reduce abandoned property exposure and states trying to increase ways to get their hands on what they view as legitimate abandoned property," says attorney Duncan Douglass of Alston & Bird, LLP in Atlanta, who specializes in gift cards and the state laws that apply to them. Catherine Fox-Simpson, a partner in the retail and consumer product practice at consulting firm BDO Seidman, LLP, is more blunt. "I expect a showdown," she says. "It is a matter of time."

It pays to comparison shop for gift cards, and if you like the freedom of a "use-anywhere" gift card, expect to pay for the convenience, a new survey from CreditCards.com shows.

Hit with a huge utility bill? Here's what you can do.Take a serious look at your family budget. Ask the utility if an alternate payment arrangement can be made to pay the bill over an extended period.Ask for an energy audit of your home or apartment. Avoid getting a cash advance on your credit cards. Borrow money from friends or relatives to help you pay the bill, but pay them back. Speaking of emergency funds, work toward building a rainy day fund of your own -- enough to cover six months' living expenses.

Utility companies across the country are making it easier to pay your monthly electric, heating oil and natural gas bills with credit cards and debit cards -- payment options that were rare just a few years ago in the utility industry. With forecasts for some winter heating bills to increase by an average of 10 to 22 percent, homeowners may look toward credit cards as options to pay those unexpectedly high utility bills. Consumer credit advisers, however, say credit card utility payments are not a good idea if you don't pay off your balance each month.

Finance professors Manju Puri and David T. Robinson's paper "Optimism and Economic Choice" is the first of its kind to link optimism to major economic choices. The professors developed a numerical formula for optimism using data from the Survey of Consumer Finance, which looks at the economic health of the U.S. economy based on individuals' employment status, portfolio holdings, life expectancy, attitudes toward risk and more. Puri and Robinson calculated optimism by measuring the difference between a participant's self-reported and statistical life expectancies, based on smoking, age, gender, race and education. You are considered an optimist if you expect to live longer than the data predict you will.

For consumers, credit cards and home mortgages used to be like oil and water: They didn't mix. However, some programs rolled out recently by credit card companies are starting to blend the two. Two companies have begun to let customers pay their mortgages with credit cards; other companies have instituted rewards programs that allow customers to apply rewards points toward their mortgages' principal balances. While such programs can provide significant perks to conscientious, well-heeled consumers, experts warn against leaning too heavily on such programs. For most, they say, a house on cards is as financially flimsy as a house of cards. "For every borrower who could actually benefit from this kind of program responsibly, there will likely be five more who should avoid it altogether," says Lisa Peterson, vice president of Texas lending for Shelter Mortgage LLC.

It's possible to bypass applying for credit with international lenders by using existing bank accounts, credit cards or lines of credit. If you have American cards already, they will still exist wherever you go. You can change the cards to an overseas address and they will still be viable.