Ken and Daria Dolan, America's First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

We have always recommended that you check your credit report annually and be on the lookout for bad marks that could drag your credit score down. If you do find negative reports, don't freak out and don't get scammed by those credit companies offering a quick fix either.

Here's the right way to remove any blemishes from your report and keep it that way for years to come.

Dear Ken and Daria,

I have several negative marks on my credit report, but I am working hard to raise my score. What can I do to remove those bad marks?

-Matthew

Did you check your annual credit report and not like what you found? Ken and Daria show you how simple steps can effectively raise your credit score on Dolans.com.

Over the years, I've been hit by every bank fee imaginable: overdraft fees, non-sufficient funds and, of course, I've been ensnared in the vast matrix of ATM fees. I'm not proud of this. I think it just comes with the territory, when you're a freelance writer, or freelance anyone, and you're not paid regularly. Sometimes there are cash flow problems.

We had one last weekend, as my wife discovered when she tried to take out $20 out of our bank account. She was denied. (One of the lovely side benefits of blogging about personal finance is getting to shred myself of any humility. Yes, that's right; our account had less than $20 in it.) As it turns out, my wife tried to take the $20 from an ATM that wasn't part of the ATM network that our bank belongs to, and so a message flashed on the screen reading: "You're broke, and now move on, so we can get a customer with deeper pockets than you."

(Well, maybe those weren't the exact words, but you get the idea.)

When it comes to borrowing money, credit unions are my favorite place to go because of the quality personal service I receive. In the current credit industry, where the 10th bank this year recently closed, credit unions are faring well and even bragging about it.

BankRate.com looked into how credit unions are prospering while conventional banks are taking hits across the board. It found that the success was linked to credit unions being quicker to share best practices even with those in the same market, and due to the fact that the credit unions faced lower write-offs and delinquencies than traditional banks.

Not only are credit unions doing well in avoiding write-offs, but many of them are boasting increased membership. Further adding to the health of credit unions in a tumultuous environment is that for the first quarter of 2008, as a whole, they issued more loans than they have historically. Analysts place this rise on the willingness of credit unions to utilize their local knowledge and sit down with individuals in order to provide smart lending.

This throwback to the old-fashioned, highly human-involved method of banking may be one part of what protected the credit unions from the current fallout, not to mention a good way for individuals to continue to get loans to get the economy back on track, at least on a small scale.

In keeping with the trend of shutting down banks late on Friday afternoon, the tenth shutdown of the year occurred on Friday. Integrity Bank of Alpharetta was closed by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. Why Fridays? It gives officials a couple of days to assess things and prepare for dealing with consumers.

$974 million in deposits at Integrity will be taken over by Regions Bank of Birmingham. The FDIC is reporting that it will end up paying out an estimated $250 million to $350 million for insured deposits.

Why another bank failure? It's said that this one can be blamed on the real estate market. Integrity specialized in real estate lending and grew quickly, but as soon as the real estate market got sketchy the problems started. Late last year there was a management shakeup and the bank was delisted from the Nasdaq market early in 2008.

The Federal Reserve gave consumer a few months to mull over this proposition: Should credit card companies be allowed to raise the rate on debt you already owe? Is it fair for them to constantly reshuffle your debt so you are always paying the highest possible interest rate and the most fees? Should banks keep secret the way to opt out of their overdraft protection plans, where they can charge a huge fee for a tiny overdraft? And can they send you an offer of one rate, then switch you to another?

Guess what? Consumers overwhelmingly hate all these current practices. They think credit card companies should be reigned in. Nearly 20,000 people wrote in on the three parts of the proposal: credit cards, overdrafts and truth in lending rules. Many call for stricter rules and use florid language like "usury."

Also guess what? Banks think the rules are a stupid idea. Bank of America is not just worried about itself, of course. BofA is concerned about the "broad impact on the economy both at the retail level and in highly complex securitization markets, slowing growth and limiting access to financing. To quote Bill Murray: "Dog and cats, living together!"

BusinessWeek's Jessica Silver-Greenberg says that it's the most significant credit card rule change in 20 years. Till now, she writes, regulators were content to simply force banks to clearly disclose their terms (which resulted in those pages of small-type that practically nobody reads). So now regulators and getting around to actually regulating. The comment period ended August 4, (though the comment form is still up).

Earlier today I found out about a new entrant to the high yield online savings market on CNN which is offering a savings account with an interest rate of 3.75%. Dollar Savings Direct boasts that this new savings account has America's highest rate* a full quarter of a percent above its nearest competitor. While the new entrant is FDIC insured and not new to the banking industry the new high yield interest rate doesn't come without a catch.

Getting the 3.75% rate isn't difficult but unless you already have some savings built up you can't open an account at Dollar Savings Direct which requires a minimum of $1,000 to open an account. If you have less than $1,000 in the account at any given time, the interest rates drops to 1% APY, which is dismal, especially for an online savings account. I'm not a huge fan of the drop in interest rate but if you have trouble dipping into your savings for non-essentials it may be enough to keep your savings in the bank.

I'm a huge fan of online savings accounts, especially those which pay me well for building up my savings. I currently use HSBC where I was able to open an account with only a dollar and I am currently earning 3.5% APY on the emergency fund we have built up over the past year. The real benefit of a high yield savings account with no minimum deposit is that it isn't a huge challenge to open and combined with direct deposit is an excellent way to start an emergency fund. If it wasn't for HSBC's no minimum savings account I'm positive that our emergency fund would have been squandered on electronics and Taco Bell.

Another week, another bank failure. Columbia Bank of Topeka, Kansas became the 9th bank to fail so far this year. You can read all the gory details here, but we want to focus your attention on just one number: $46 million.

$46 million was held in accounts at Columbia Bank that will NOT be covered by FDIC insurance. Most likely because those accounts were over the $100,000 FDIC limit. That's a lot of people losing a lot of money-money that, like you, they probably thought was safe in their bank. That's a lot of hard work, retirement dreams and college tuition payments that just went up in smoke!

Look, the banking industry is facing some serious trouble right now and we expect more failures ahead. (There are 90 banks sitting on the FDIC "trouble" list right now.) Don't let this happen to you and your loved ones.

Understanding how FDIC insurance works and taking a few simple steps to making sure you are playing by those rules can save you tremendous heartache should your bank fail. So, please take a few minutes now to be absolutely sure your money is safe.

Just watch our video below for a simple explanation of the rules and the steps you should take to protect the maximum amount of money possible.

Is your bank safe? Let personal finance experts Ken and Daria Dolan show you how to get the answer at Dolans.com. Plus learn 5 things you need to know if your bank fails.

In Germany between the two world wars, inflation rose to such a point in the early '20s that a loaf of bread cost a million or more marks. Cities and townships printed their own money in a desperate attempt to work around this hyper-inflation. They were known as notgeld, or emergency money.

With Zimbabwe experiencing a similar rise in inflation (according to this report, a 100 billion Zimbabwe dollar note will not buy a loaf of bread today) and worries about our own U.S. inflation, it bears thinking about what happens when governments start printing money willy nilly to meet its debt obligations, much like our own U.S. Treasury is sometimes accused of today.

It's too early to say whether the U.S. Greenback will ever become as worthless as the Weimar era German Mark or the Zimbabwe dollar (and given the outrageous, anti-free market moves our esteemed Republican administration has engaged in, anything is possible, I suppose.) But in the spirit of the times, I celebrate the beauty of "emergency money," in whatever form it takes.

German Notgeld are beautiful pieces of paper money, often small works of art, featuring Expressionistic renderings of the given locale and its traditions. They're collected in Europe as practical yet lovely relics of a difficult time. There's not a large market for them in this country yet, as far as collectibles go, but that could change, if old money collectors start feeling like tapping into current events.

I wonder what this country's unemployed graphic artists could do, given the opportunity to design a local currency. A San Francisco $10 million note (good for two cups of espresso)? Think of the design possibilities!

Ken and Daria Dolan, America's First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

Here's the plain truth: The single best step you can take to living the retirement of your dreams is to contribute the maximum amount allowed to an IRA. Unfortunately, too many people ignore this rare gift from Uncle Sam.

We hear from readers all the time about why they don't contribute to retirement plans, and it's usually because they don't know where – and how much – to contribute. Let's clear up some of that confusion with our answer to the following WalletPop reader question.

Dear Ken and Daria,

Can a working and a non-working spouse both make IRA contributions?

-Jim

Making the most of your IRA is a key part of successful retirement planning. Get answers to all your questions about IRA rules, Roth IRAs, rollovers and more at Dolans.com.

The tiny town of Tightwad, Missouri has little to offer beyond an excellent, excellent name. In a 1984 stroke of genius, Citizens Bank of Windsor played upon the name by building a branch there and naming it the Tightwad Bank. On the name alone, the bank thrived for a while from the business of people across the country who wanted that name to appear on their checks and accounts.

However, as the joke wore thin, so did the bank's finances. UMB Financial, who had purchased the Tightwad during its halcyon days, shut it down in 2006. However, nearby Reading State Bank, seeing an opportunity, gained approval to rename itself Tightwad Bank, with the slogan "The Bank With a Sense of Humor." (I'm not sure a sense of humor is a selling point in a bank to me. I'd rather my banker be staid and to the point.) Now, the branch in Tightwad is once again open, ready to take your money and treat it with all the parsimony you could desire.

I'm thinking of moving some money there, from my accounts at the

• We'd Give a Loan To a Pig Savings and Loan
• The Drunken Sailor Bank and Keno Parlor
• The Pay Me Back When You Got It Credit Union
• Rodney Dangerfield's Topless Bank

Today's July retail sales report shows what we've been saying for some time--people seem to be spending their government stimulus checks on necessities such as food and gas, and not on shopping sprees.

President Bush's economic stimulus program--which doled out up to $600 per person to over 130 million households--might not have had the desired impact on the economy, but an extra $600 bucks surely helped your bottom line, right?

What's that you say...you haven't gotten your stimulus check yet?

Well, if you filed your 2007 tax return--which you must do in order to be eligible--more than 8-12 weeks ago, it's time to track down your missing money. Maggie B., one of our Dolans.com readers, followed the advice we're about to give you and discovered her stimulus check was collecting dust at the IRS because it was returned as "undeliverable" by the post office.

So take 5 minutes right now to visit www.irs.gov and click on the button right smack in the middle of the screen that says "Stimulus Package."

We're shocked to hear ourselves saying this, but the IRS has put together pretty useful, easy-to-understand information that can help you track down your check. The most common reason people don't receive their checks is because the check was returned to the IRS as undeliverable.

And that doesn't just apply to this year's stimulus checks. The IRS is holding BILLIONS of dollars of unclaimed tax refunds. In 2006 alone, the IRS owed a whopping $110 million in refunds to more than 155,000 people they couldn't find!

So download Form 8822, which is the IRS' official change of address form, right from that main stimulus package web page and find out if you have any unclaimed refunds coming to you.

The site also lists all the eligibility rules and reasons why you might not have received a check (for example, Uncle Sam kept it to pay back taxes you owed). The IRS will even put a trace on your check to help you track it down if it's been more than 8 weeks since you filed your return.

(By the way, if you haven't filed your 2007 tax return, it's NOT too late! You have until October 15th to file and still be eligible for your rebate. After that, say sayonara to a quick 600 bucks.)

Like the idea of finding lost money you didn't even know you had? We can show you more where that came from! Check out our new video, How to Find "Missing" Money at Dolans.com.

Personal finance experts Ken and Daria Dolan help people like you learn to save more, spend less and live richly at Dolans.com.

Less than a month ago, Amey Stone blogged here about leasing a new van. She may have been among the last to enjoy the leasing option, at least until the turmoil of the market settles a bit. To make money with a lease, car manufacturers/lenders need to be able to predict with some accuracy the cost of money over the term of the lease, and the value of the vehicle at the end of the lease.

In the past couple of months alone, the value of used SUVs and trucks have taken a precipitous dive in favor of high-mileage vehicles, leaving leasing companies sitting on fleets worth considerably less than projected. The mere hint of inflation that factored into the Fed's decision to leave the benchmark federal funds rate at its present level is also enough to scare already loan-wary financiers.

All is not hopeless, however. According to MarketWatch, foreign money (so much of it our own money, spent and returning home) is available to fund more conservative leases. However, given the degree to which the Big Three have depended on leases to sell their land barges, I'm skeptical that new lease terms could be favorable enough to convince gas-conscious drivers to buy an Explorer, Hummer or Silverado.

Given these circumstances, I'm thinking Amey got a deal. Let the leasing company assume the risk that her van's popularity will tank before the lease is up.

Brian Dean was a private, reclusive man, one who went to and from his Lancashire, England home by the dark of night, one who paid his bills on time, and one who obviously had a quite substantial amount of money in his bank account. Because when he died in his bed about two years ago, the automatic withdrawals kept occurring to fund his utilities and other expenses, and no one thought to knock on the door.

Police officers broke the door down and discovered his body and a huge pile of unopened mail inside his door. It wasn't reported how they were inspired to check on the 70-year-old Dean.

While this is surely an extreme example of the blind efficiency of modern conveniences -- and is an argument for being connected to one's community -- it makes me wonder if setting up automatic bill pay from an account large enough to pay bills for years isn't ultimately a bad idea. Today I discovered that my Fidelity 401(k) account could be configured to pay my bills; and it seems a little too convenient to think that I could sell some stock to pay my water bill. I've always thought that keeping investments and savings less accessible and definitely separate from your checking account was the prevailing wisdom. Are we sacrificing too much for ease-of-use? [Thanks to Stacy Westbrook for the link!]

Ken and Daria Dolan, America's First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Dear Ken and Daria,

My wife and I have the money to pay off our mortgage. Should we pay it off or invest for a higher return?

-Richard

Thinking of re-financing your mortgage? Check out the Dolans' guide to negotiating the best mortgage for you.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

Wesabe is an amazing useful personal finance site which provides access to all of your checking and savings accounts under one site in order to better track your finances. I had a chance to chat with Marc Hedlund, the CEO of Wesabe about security, user rights, features, upcoming and the community focus of this excellent site. This article is longer than our normal fare but stick with it if you want to get to know your money using a cool online tool.

The first thing you'll want to know before handing over your banking information to a company is how secure they are. Wesabe provides its users with industry standard encryption to protect your financial data. Unlike their competitor, Mint who uses a third party to handle security and data Wesabe has taken the processes in house and developed their own system. The decision is actually a great one when it comes to security and the rights you have over your data. Marc shared with me that one of the main reasons they built their own system was to be able to offer users a Data Bill of Rights, allowing you to completely delete your data at any time, something third party vendors would have kept. Aside from keeping your passwords and financial information from a company you don't have a business relationship with the Wesabe system also has the ability to get updates about your transactions as often as your bank provides updates providing you with more accurate information.

Another cool feature of being a Wesabe user is that there are currently 4 ways to upload your data based on how much information you want to trust Wesabe with. Three of these methods don't require that you provide Wesabe with any of your banking credentials and the fourth is an automatic uploader which logs in and updates your account information throughout the day after you provide your login information to Wesabe. Many users begin with the manual upload and as their trust in Wesabe grows, move to more automatic methods of uploading. The fully automatic uploader came about from user requests and is the method that Marc uses to upload to Wesabe.