Improve your credit score, for real, with the #1 best-selling guide you can trust! Today, a good credit score is essential for getting credit, getting a job, even getting car insurance or a cellphone. Now, best selling journalist Liz Pulliam Weston has thoroughly updated her top-selling guide to credit scores, with crucial new information for protecting (or rebuilding) yours. Weston thoroughly covers brand-new laws and rules surrounding credit scoring - including some surprising good news and some frightening new risks. Don't settle for an out-of-date guide to credit scoring, when Your Credit Score, Fifth Edition offers brand-new coverage of all this, and more: Recent consumer-friendly reforms in lending, credit score calculation, and credit bureau behavior - and how to take advantage of them How you can finally get your credit disputes reviewed by an actual human being Why recent medical debts shouldn't impact your score anymore How to get a legitimately free FICO score without getting ripped off How lenders have recently loosened their criteria, making it easier to get loans even if your credit isn't perfect Important new options for student loan borrowers - including brand-new ways to dramatically limit your payments How tax refund fraud is soaring - and the one little-known way to avoid becoming a victim The disappearance of "manual underwriting": why it's now virtually impossible to get a mortgage without credit scores Weston updates her guidance on raising your FICO score... fighting lower limits or higher rates... maintaining the right mix of cards and balances... bouncing back from bad credit... choosing credit "solutions" that help, not hurt... explodes both new and old myths about credit scoring... and much more. Your Credit Score is for every consumer who is concerned about improving or protecting their credit - and it's so up-to-date and useful, thousands of financial professionals use it, too!

"A perfect read as a financial primer. Weston's solid and occasionally humorous writing shines through . . . and] takes this book from being yet another personal finance book to being an enjoyable read I would recommend."
-TheSimpleDollar.com

Millions of us skate by from paycheck to paycheck. We all have financial goals we want (or need) to achieve, but are perplexed by how to get there. But expert financial advisor Liz Weston has carved a path, with ten simple strategies that help anyone avoid critical mistakes, survive downturns, and make the numbers work.

Debunking well-trod myths (pay down all your debt immediately) while giving unexpectedly brilliant tips (it's okay to let student loans linger), Liz Weston outlines everything you need to become financially viable, including how to:
Know what you can afford Create a survival plan with cash and credit Manage "good debt" to get ahead Save for retirement without sacrificing today