We've been getting a lot of desperate comments from people who are seeing their credit destroyed as their personal financial lives take a nose dive. Many are losing jobs and others are facing severe medical problems. Some made big bets with investment property in real estate and now face numerous foreclosures. All are probably facing major drops in their credit scores and not able to get new credit in the tight market today.

So how long does it take to fix your score, if your score is down dramatically after a credit disaster? The good news is that your most recent history is what impacts your score the greatest, so as these bad debt reports age you will find your score gradually getting better as long as you pay on time starting from today.

I have seen people with bankruptcies get back up to the high 600s within three years. What does that mean in today's credit market? They would probably be able to get credit, but they will likely not get the best credit offers. In order to get the best interest rates you need a score of 760. The next best rates go to people with scores of 700 to 759. People between 650 and 699 can still get credit but they will pay significantly more for it in higher interest rates. Under 650 you probably will find it very difficult, if not impossible, to get credit.

How long will it take to get a clean credit record? Most of the negatives on your credit report will drop off after seven years, but you don't have to wait that long to see an improvement in your score. If you have a clean record of payments on time for three years and you don't apply for more than one or two new cards at that time your score should go above 650. If you want to get that score above 700, you'll need to get your debt levels closer to 10 to 20 percent. Even if you're good, you probably won't reach 700 for at least four years.

Lita Epstein has written more than 25 books including the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Improving Your Credit Score" and "The 250 Questions You Should Ask to Avoid Foreclosure."

Update; no thanks to Sears, Citibank officials have stepped in to resolve this dilemma. Read about it here:

Just in case you need another reason not to use a store branded credit card, a Sears card holder, Tom, is still waiting for a refund on a TV that he ordered last November at his local store. After finding out that Sears didn't have the specially priced TV he wanted in stock on Black Friday, the store agreed to order one for him. He went ahead and paid for the $1,070 TV with his store credit card.

The customer left for a week long vacation expecting to pick up his new TV upon his return. However the TV was still unavailable. At this point, he was able to negotiate a lower price on a similar TV by speaking with the manager, for which he also paid. He went home with his new TV to bask in its glow.

He soon found out that Sears had not refunded the original purchase price of $1,070 for the set he had purchased on Black Friday, a TV he has never taken delivery of. He has tried speaking to the manager at the local store as well as the customer support for his Sears card, but no one can seem to get their act together and issue a refund. Tom already disputed the charge with the "Disputes" department for his Sears Card but is consistently hung up on, as there is no hold queue for the department. Contacting the local manager has proved fruitless as well, as her phone rings continuously.

Right now the customer is out $1,070.74. It is ridiculous that no one at Sears can step outside the script to help resolve a major purchase for this man. To get closure he may find it necessary to take Sears to small claims court or to approach his State Attorney General.

In Ohio, for example, one can file a complaint online and sit back while the AG's office does all the heavy lifting for you. Tom might also call his local news team -- I am sure they have a "Call for Action" segment that this would fit into quite nicely.

He would have been well advised to use a major credit card instead of a store card for this purchase, so that he could better challenge this charge. Store cards are notorious for having high rates, and in this case have a vested interest in not helping him with the dispute.

Isn't it time you started reaping the benefits of your local congressman's clout? Not yet ready to ask for a letter of recommendation for West Point? Have no fear because if you are the bearer of student loans and your loan company is shafting you, your congressman may be the key to a happy ending.

Getting some satisfaction with the help of your congressman or woman is so easy anybody can do it. Granted, like all problems and lending issues, it helps if you are in the right and have been paying your lender what the terms state. But this strategy may work even if you are close to being handed off to a collection agency.

As a little background: My wife had all of her student loans through Sallie Mae, affectionately referred to around our house as the devil. Several of these private loans which Ms. Mae was holding on to were pulling in 13.25% interest! We had included some of these loans in an initial federal consolidation which never worked out. Apparently the incoming fax line at Sallie Mae was hooked right up to a paper shredder because they never received our requests to consolidate. We tried again to consolidate my wife's private loans with Wells Fargo, who, just like our federal consolidator, never received a response from Sallie Mae. Fed up with the problems we were having, I did what any rational person would, I called my local news stations call for action. This is where I found out I could contact my congressman to get some satisfaction.

This is the second in a series of posts about why and how to collect art -- even when you don't have a lot of extra money

We've all heard the stories: Guy finds a painting in his attic, has it appraised, learns it's a long-lost Picasso, sells it to a collector for zillions.

Hope springs eternal. But these stories aren't all urban legends. There's enough stuff out there that you just never know. My colleague Zac Bissonnette wrote recently about the German woman who pulled a million dollar painting out of the trash.

The chances of finding a lost master at a garage sale are slim, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of high-quality art out there. And I'm not talking in the galleries, either. In one sense, art is where you look for it. In another sense, everyone's an artist. Find what you love, and go from there.

Here are a few places I've hit pay-dirt when trolling for art.

Myths endure because the stories seize our imaginations and never let go. For instance, there's the enduring story of the hitchhiker who is picked up and leaves a wallet behind, and the driver who returns it to the house soon learns that his passenger died in a car accident years ago.

And there's the tale of the young couple out on a date, parked along an old countryside road. The music on the radio is interrupted by a local newscaster with a terse warning: "A dangerous convicted murderer has escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane. He has a hook attached to his right hand..." And, of course, when the couple returns to the young woman's house, they find attached to the outside of her car door -- a bloody hook.

There's Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle and that crazy myth that offshore bank accounts are used by sinister bad guys.

OK, that last one is true to a large extent, but the stigma is so strong that it often prevents good and honest people from opening accounts.

That's why Lloyds Bank, based in the United Kingdom, has been on an active campaign, trying to spread the word that it's perfectly okay to get an offshore bank account. Are they doing this because everyone who works there is kind and benevolent souls? Well, possibly -- I'm sure they're all nice people -- but they also just happen to be in the market to sell you an offshore carrier account.

With the Federal Reserve aggressively cutting interest rates, you may be wondering if it's time to refinance your current mortgage. The answer is a simple yes. Back in January I locked in a 4.5% 15-year fixed rate mortgage the day after the Fed rate cut. Rates went back up to 5.5% within a week.

Generally you will benefit from a refinance as long as your interest rate will go down by at least 1% and the new loan does not require you to pay points in order to get that lowered rate. In most cases, a refinance is only worth it if you plan to stay in the home for more than three years. If you think you'll be selling the home before that, the costs of a refinance probably won't be recovered unless you can lower your rate by 2% or more.

With interest rates so low, the only kind of mortgage you should consider today is a traditional fixed-rate mortgage. Lock in those low rates. Don't play games with variable rates. If you can't afford the payment on a 30-year fixed-rate, consider a 40- or 50-year mortgage rather than a variable rate mortgage. You can always make extra principal payments when you can afford them to shorten the life of the loan in the future. But, of course, be sure your loan doesn't have any pre-payment penalties. Never accept a mortgage loan with pre-payment penalties. Ask that question when you're shopping for a loan and ask it again before you sign the papers to close the loan. Make sure you see in writing that there are no pre-payment penalties before you close the loan.

Check your credit report and score. Before applying for any new major loan it's a good idea to check your credit report and credit score. If you find any erroneous information on your credit report, clean it up before you start the application process. Cleaning things up as part of the underwriting process will only delay the loan process and could even kill the loan. To get the best rates, your credit score must be 730 or higher. People with this credit score can often get rates below the national average rate you'll see quoted around the Internet. If your score is below 675, you will pay significantly higher rates than you are seeing quoted. People with scores between 620 and 674 generally pay 1.5% to 1.9% higher rates for a mortgage. People with scores between 560 and 619 will find their rates are about 3.8% higher than the national average, if they can find a lender at all in today's tight mortgage market. Below that you'll probably find it almost impossible to get a refinance in today's market. You can use the round robin debt startegy to improve your score quickly.

As the details of the economic stimulus plan are circulated, it's become clearer who will and won't get a rebate check. Most everyone will get a check of some amount...with the exception of the following people who will not get checks:

1. If you don't file a 2007 tax return, you won't get a check.
2. If your qualifying income is less than $3,000, you won't get a check. Qualifying income includes social security, wages, net income from self-employment, combat pay, and veterans payments. (Supplemental Security Income -- SSI -- does not count as qualifying income.)
   
3. If you are claimed as a dependent on someone else's return, you won't get a check. So college students being claimed by mom and dad won't get a check.
4. If you don't have a valid social security number, you won't get a check.
5. If you are a nonresident alien, you won't get a check.
6. If you file form 1040NR, 1040NR-EZ, 1040PR or 1040SS, you won't get a check.

More details on the plan are found on this page from the IRS, so you can read up and determine if you're getting a check and how much it might be. (I've already answered my quota of "will I get a check" and "how much will I get" questions for 2008!)

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Never mind that it's beyond cliche: That heart-shaped box of chocolates will likely set you back more than usual this Valentine's Day. The price of cocoa hit a 23-year high this week, bad news for those whose beloveds are expecting at least some of their V-Day kisses to come from Hershey.

Chocolate-lovers aren't taking the news well: According to the Associated Press, feds in three different countries are investigating price-fixing among candy-makers, sparking retailers and consumers to file lawsuits accusing the world's biggest chocolate companies of violating antitrust laws. The lawsuits allege that companies from Hershey to Mars, which have the biggest hold on America's sweet tooth, to lesser players like Nestle and Cadbury Schweppes have formed an international cartel to decide when and by how much to raise the price of their products. The investigation into this confection conspiracy spans the globe from North America (the U.S. and Canada) to Germany.

The folks at Hershey argue that the price increases are necessary in light of the rising cost of dairy items used in their milk chocolate; the company used this argument to justify raising its candy bar prices by 13% last month. But investigators from the German Cartel Office say they suspect Hershey, Nestle and Mars of conspiring to raise their prices higher than what was necessary to cover the cost of raw materials. And investigators in Ontario claim top execs from these three companies held secret meetings to set prices.

This alleged skulking around by the folks who brought you Snickers and M&Ms hasn't soured investors on the bean from which all chocolate is created. The day before Valentine's Day, cocoa futures closed at their highest level since April 1985. How sweet it is.

As Super Bowl Sunday segues into Super Tuesday, Americans' thoughts move from losing yardage on the field to losing ground financially.

Today's poll by the Washington Post-ABC News reveals that voters' thoughts are clearly on the economy, stupid, as well as the job market: A whopping 39% cite this as the No. 1 issue in the presidential campaign. That's up 10 percentage points in the past three weeks. (A mere five months ago, only 11% of those surveyed cited the economy as job no. 1; the majority --35% -- were still focused on the war in Iraq.)

The percentage of Americans who think we're in a recession has shot up markedly since mid-January, from 39 to 59%. A paltry 19% of those polled this month rate the economy as "excellent" or "good." The last time the economy's poll numbers were so low was in 1993. When the Post queried voters before the last midterm elections in 2006, 55% gave the national economy the thumbs-up.

Surges aside, 52% of Democrats polled by the Post say they'd trust Hillary Clinton most to handle the country's economic issues, while 38% went for Obama. McCain got the nod among Republicans with 43% over Mitt Romney's 29%.

Layoffs are never fun, especially when they seem to come out of the blue. But you can get through it, as many before you have successfully done. Here are some tips for coming out of the layoff with your finances intact.

File for unemployment immediately. Some states give unemployment benefits based upon the day you file for benefits, rather than the day you lose your job. Sign up right away to avoid missing out on any benefits you're due.

Take a hard look at your family's budget. Where can you immediately cut costs? What bills absolutely must be paid, no matter what? Evaluate your family's needs and wants, and come up with a worst-case-scenario budget so you can see where you have to start cutting your spending immediately.

Begin your job search right away. Don't sit around waiting to be called back to work, even if your employer promises you that you will return to work soon. You don't know for sure if you'll ever go back to work there, so do yourself a favor and start your job search right away. If you do get called back, good for you. If you don't, you'll be glad that you've been pounding the pavement.