Over two years ago, one of the first Devil’s Advocate posts I wrote was that you shouldn’t adjust with your payroll deductions. Back then, as it is now, conventional personal finance advice told you to adjust your withholding so that you don’t have too much tax withheld from your paycheck.

How do you adjust your withholdings? You adjust your withholding by submitting a W-4 to your company’s HR or payroll department with an updated number of exemptions. To determine how many exemptions you should put down, I would use the IRS Withholding Calculator because recent laws have made numerous “rules of thumb” obsolete.

Now that you know how, let’s talk about why!

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I applied for my first credit card as a freshman in college, it was an AT&T branded Citi card that gave me free long distance phone minutes and a few rewards points. I was fortunate to have started building up my credit at the age of eighteen, which would prove to be crucial later on. I was even more fortunate never to have fallen down the credit card debt hole so many college students slip into, in part because I know my mom would’ve been furious.

To help all the rising freshmen, or perhaps the parents of rising freshmen, I offer up these ten rules for smart credit. Some of these are credit card rules and some are simply credit rules, hopefully all of them are helpful. Here are ten tips for students looking to build credit but not credit card debt:
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In a couple months, my wife and I will be taking an extended vacation to Europe. It’ll be a fantastic trip, one we’ve been looking forward to for months, and with the dollar strengthening and the economy across the world weak, we figured we could take advantage of lower prices to get some traveling done.

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The buzz in the personal finance blogosphere lately has been about the new Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009. The House passed their version last month, the Senate passed their version this week, and they’ve already reconciled it. I bet by the time this post is published, President Obama will probably be putting pen to paper and signing it into law.

What do you think?
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May 20th Update: The House of Representatives gave their approval of the CARD Act passed in the Senate and the bill is on its way to President Obama.

Today, the Senate voted 90-5 in favor of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009, which is one step closer to credit card reform in America. In April, the House of Representatives passed a similar Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009 (357-to-70) and now the two chambers must reconcile the bills for President Obama to sign into law.

Here are the major parts of the Senate CARD Act:

• Credit card companies cannot raise interest rates on existing balances unless a card holder was 60 days behind.
• If a credit card company raises rates, six months of on-time payment would restore the interest rate to the previous level.
• Companies must notify consumers 45 days in advance of any rate increases.
• Companies cannot charge a late fee if they were late in processing a payment.
• Statements must be mailed 21 days before the payment due date.
• Rules were put in place that would make it harder for for companies to issue cards to those under 21.
• Interest rates cannot be increased within the first 12 months, promotional rates must be in place a minimum of 6 months.

The major points of the House’s Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009 are similar. The House’s version also requires promotional rates to remain in effect for a minimum of 6 months and other similarities regarding interest rate hikes and payment rules. There are additional rules in the House version that remain to be reconciled. For example, in the House bill, credit card companies must warn a customer if they get close to their credit limit.

It’s expected that the two bills will be reconciled and President Obama will be able to sign the bill into law before Memorial Day recess.

Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009 [Thomas.gov]
Credit CARD Act of 2009 [Thomas.gov]
Senate Passes Bill to Restrict Credit-Card Practices [New York Times]

The key to building your credit history and getting it as high as possible is very simple: act responsibly with credit.

Sounds simple enough right? The problem is that the system is a bit of a catch-22. Companies won’t issue you credit if you don’t have a credit history. You can’t develop a credit history unless you start getting credit. Sometimes you can get around this if your income is high enough and the credit card limit they offer you is safely low enough. If you don’t fall in that category, how do you start building your credit history?

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I’ve been reading a lot of credit and credit scores lately because a lot of people are focusing on cleaning up their personal finances during this recession. For folks to have no credit or poor credit, rebuilding or building up your can be difficult and expensive. If you can’t get unsecured credit to establish your history, the next best option is to get secured credit. If you need a car and can get a car loan, that’s the best way. If you don’t need a car or you can’t get a loan, the next best thing out there appears to secured credit cards.

Read on to learn more about secured credit cards, how they compare to a debit card, how they improve/build your credit score, and what to watch out for if you’re looking for one.

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This morning, I gave you five good reasons why you should go to paperless statements and I’m here to lay down another useful tip. Did you know that you can get the due date on your credit card statements changed just by asking politely? I don’t know how credit card companies pick a due date but it invariably never matches each other or your paycheck – now you can fix that with one phone call.

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Do you know why credit cards have an expiration date? In the beginning, it was because a credit card had a limited useful lifespan. After a few years, the magnetic stripe on the back would either get demagnetized or damaged so much that it was unreadable.

It wasn’t until later that the expiration date was used as a security feature. For many years, you could continue to use expired credit cards because the stripe was fine and the expiration date wasn’t used for verification.

So what were you to do with an expired card? You’d have to destroy it of course. In our age of identity theft and fraud, only a fool would throw a credit card into the trash without cutting it up first. However, with the economy the way it is and the value of credit card numbers going up, it’s important to properly destroy a credit card.

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It looks like the Complete Idiot’s Guide franchise has expanded into the personal finance world with their latest offering, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Out of Debt by Ken Clark. I normally associate their books with specific products, like how to use Quicken or how to get the most out of TurboTax, but this one talks about the steps you need to take to put your personal finances back on track and get yourself out of debt.

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