Chase has made an agreement to refund an "illegal" $10 monthly fee it charged about 184,000 customers in November, which will mean that the bank is forking back about $4.4 million, after caving to pressure by New York's attorney general.

Can an overdue library book destroy your credit? Do you hurt your score every time you check your report? Can you improve your score by piggybacking on someone else's? Try your hand at Kiplinger.com's quiz to find out what you know -- and might not know -- about credit.

When your credit-card issuer abruptly cuts your credit limit, you might not even notice -- at first. But even if you've got a great credit history, beware: such shenanigans could ruin your score before you know it. Read on to find out why you need to read the fine print -- and how you soon may be protected from this trap.

He's slowly making payments on $40,000 in credit-card debt -- but he's about to fall behind. What should he do? The same thing any mountain climber would do: start strategizing. Which debt should take priority? How can he get credit assistance? Read on for counsel (and comfort) from the Debt Adviser.

As unemployment soars, more Americans are failing to make credit-card payments by their due dates, Reuters reports. And one analyst predicts that both the default rate and credit lines will deteriorate further over the next year and a half. The grim details follow.

If you're hitched, ditched, or rich, be on your guard. The most common victims of credit- and debit-card identity theft are middle-aged married women, divorcees, and those earning more than $75,000 annually. A survey outlines the outlines the troubles fraud can bring.

If you've got bad credit, you've got two options for rebuilding it: applying for a secured card, which requires you to keep the equivalent of the card's limit on deposit, or an unsecured card, which doesn't (but which attaches other strings). Which option is better? Read on.

Young people especially are finding it hard to put money down on a vacation -- and it's not just that they don't have the money, it's that the credit card companies are actually denying the charges. On one cruise line, that means that 30% of customers under 40 have been turned down.

Lost your job? Your health? Got hitched--or divorced? Credit-card issuers offer protection plans to briefly shield you from your minimum monthly payments--for a small fee. But that small fee can get out of hand fast. WalletPop blogger Vanessa Richardson explains the fine print.