Buying anything that requires credit is harder than it used to be. Banks who used to send credit card and mortgage refinancing solicitations on an almost daily basis have ratcheted up their lending standards, making borrowing more difficult for the most stalwart of consumers.

Deals, though, are available for financing everything from home equity loans to cars to flat screen TVs. Zero percent financing is still available at times. Experts advise consumers to be cautious. Stephanie Bittner of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Delaware Valley also had the following tips:

The old adage, if 10 years ago makes for an adage, was to monitor your credit and close down any unused credit accounts. Before the advent of "instant" mortgage approvals and automated underwriting systems, loans were actually evaluated completely by a living, breathing human being: an underwriter.

When a borrower would make an application for a home loan, an underwriter would look at other credit accounts. Some that had a credit limit with a low or zero balance. If the potential borrower had any past history of running up his credit line to or beyond his credit limit, it would make an underwriter nervous. What if a borrower who was pushing his debt ratios to qualify for a home loan would suddenly go out and buy a boat, a new car and take a trip to Cozumel right after he closed on his mortgage loan? Suddenly that new homeowner might not have the ability to pay his brand new mortgage.

From another prudent point of view, having old, unused credit accounts simply should be canceled should anyone ever attempt to steal an identify or otherwise charge something on an old card. But that's old school. Here's the new school.

It's always interesting to learn about a financial lending firm that arrives on the scene during a monetary crisis. In this case, I'm thinking of GlobeFunder, a direct-to-consumer lending company. I half wonder if the executive management team thinks it's the unluckiest company in the world -- or if it actually feels very fortunate. After all, with a credit crunch, there are fewer borrowers who have good credit and can get a loan. But with a credit crunch, it certainly will have plenty of people who want to borrow from the company.

So that brings me to GlobeFunder. I thought I'd let everyone -- entrepreneurs in particular -- know that there's a new financial lending firm on the scene, and it's eager to lend you money. Well, hold on, before you get too excited. It's eager to lend you money as long as you have good credit. Yeah, there's always a catch.

(If it helps, you have to have a credit score that is at least 640.)

Anyway, GlobeFunder can offer people $25,000 in unsecured loans, depending on your state's laws. They'll also soon be offering home equity and auto loans.

A reader asked me whether or not her credit score would be impacted if she married someone with a very low credit score. She had excellent credit. I told her it depends upon whether or not she took out joint credit and bank accounts. Once you take joint accounts as a husband and wife, your credit scores do tend to meld.

If you're planning to get married and you have an excellent credit score and your fiance does not, you may want to keep your finances separate for awhile. You can each have your own savings account and open a joint checking account for paying the household bills. Determine in advance how much you each will contribute to the joint account each month, so you don't end up with fights later about someone not contributing enough.

If you're thinking of buying a house, the person with the excellent credit score is the one who should put in the application. Don't put your spouse or fiance as a co-borrower if they have a low credit score or you will end up with much higher interest rate. This could mean that you'll need to buy in a smaller house until your spouse or fiance gets his credit score up, but at least you won't ruin your own credit score or pay outrageous mortgage interest rates.

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

Dear Ken and Daria,

My husband and I received our free credit report; however we could not get our credit scores unless we paid for them. Is this customary and lawful or am I missing something?

Nancy

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File this one away under stuff that sounds like bad news but is actually good news. Mortgages are really hard to get, unless you have great credit (a FICO score of over 700, and considerably higher if you want an interest-only loan) and crazy stuff like, oh, proof of income.

That's right: if you've wracked up credit card debt and missed payments, you'll be stuck renting. Here's why that's good news. First, more stringent standards lead to fewer foreclosures and fewer financial lives ruined. Second, clamping down on stupid lending practices that give money to people who can never pay it back helps keep prices down. To understand how this works, imagine heading off to an auction where you had to use real money but half the audience got to bid with Monopoly money. It isn't fair, but that's exactly what happened to responsible first-time home buyers who had saved up a down payment and wanted to buy a home the right way. They had to compete for real estate with people who were driving leased Lexus' and had no down payment cash back at closing loans that they never intended to repay.

And if the tighter lending standards mean you can't buy a home now, relax. Move into the least expensive but tolerable rental you can find, stop eating out, drive an old car, and save up a down payment while your credit score improves. Believe it or not, people used to take pride in the sacrifices they made in the pursuit of the American Dream.

Lita Epstein is WalletPop's resident credit score expert. Write to her in the comments box below.

Many of the questions I receive relate to credit scores and how to improve them. There are many myths out there which I debunk below, but first let's take a look at what a credit is and who creates it. Actually there isn't just one type of credit score. The primary driving force behind most of them though is the Fair Isaac Corporation, known by most as FICO.

Each of the three credit reporting agencies has a score developed by FICO. Equifax's is called BEACON, TransUnion's is called FICO Risk Score and Experian's is called FICO II. Each one is tweaked slightly differently, so you'll find your credit score is not exactly the same at each agency, but scores are usually within 20 points of each other. If you find a greater difference, one or more of the credit agencies probably have inaccurate information in your credit file.

In addition to these three types of scores, there are new scores from Fair Isaac called NextGen. The names given to these new scores are Pinnacle (Equifax), FICO Risk Score (Experian) and Risk Score Next Gen (TransUnion).

That's not all. In addition to these scores there is scoring done for insurance companies and others designed for different types of businesses that set up a different set of parameters they want monitored. Insurance companies believe that people with a low credit score tend to file more claims, so in many states your insurance premiums can be higher if you have a low credit score.

I find that some of the most educated and experienced people I know don't understand how credit scores are determined and maintained. It seems that this score which essentially controls your ability to achieve the "American Dream" is a mystery to most people. The slew of advice makes it even harder separate the wheat from the chaff. Thankfully the Today Show has provided some wonderful information to help inform consumers about their credit score.

Today, credit rating bureau Experian rolled out the "Emerging Credit Score, a new credit scoring tool to assist lenders in evaluating the creditworthiness of unbanked and underbanked consumers."

The Emerging Credit Scores, and similar programs from the other bureaus, rely on telephone and utility bills, and catalog/internet purchase histories to arrive at a credit score.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "the new scores could be good news for those who pay their bills promptly but don't have established credit histories. In the past, banks often ignored this group because they had no way of evaluating the risk."

This is great news. For too long, it's been difficult to establish a good credit score without using credit cards. That's no problem if you use your card responsibly but, according to CardTrak, 60% of people don't pay off their credit cards every month. In addition, a Dunn and Bradstreet study found that credit card users spend 12% to 18% more when using a card instead of cash. This is wonderful for retailers but bad for you.

We should reconsider the notion of getting a credit card to build credit. Innovations like the Emerging Credit Score are making it easier to qualify for a mortgage without getting involved with credit cards, and that's a great option for a lot of people.

Who's made some late payments on their credit cards lately? Raise your hand.

If everyone reading this article has kept their hands down, either there are a lot of people out there lying, or a lot of people who don't want to feel like an idiot for raising their hand in front of a computer screen. According to CardTrak, an information portal on credit cards, the percentage of people late on their payments is the highest it's been in three years. In 2007, credit card companies made $18.1 billion dollars in penalty fees (for a little comparison, the year before, they made more than $17 billion in penalty fees.)

Fortunately, there is some hope out for anyone with an increasing history of late fees and decreasing credit score, according to John Ulzheimer. He founded Credit.com and wrote the book with the reassuring title, You're Nothing But a Number, and he said that while Americans' credit scores might be tanking, a credit score, in the end, is truly our friend.

Imagine this: Your 15-year-old goes to apply for his first after-school job...and finds out he has a number of black marks for credit fraud marring his record. And you were worried about his report card?

According to some sources, 500,000 children are victims of identity theft every year. Minors comprise the fastest-growing segment of identity theft victims.

Great. Just one more thing for a parent to fret over.