There are changes coming to the way credit scores are calculated that could affect millions of women. For many years, people have been allowed to share their credit cards with authorized users. Husbands historically have done this for their spouses. But then some criminals figured out how to take the whole authorized user thing one step further -- they actually generate inflated credit scores for risky candidates by renting out someone's good credit. Think about it in the following way. Let's say Clark has terrible credit and his executive producer Christa has great credit. A third party operator can charge Clark $1,000 to rent Christa's status. Christa will receive $500, the operator will keep the other $500 and Clark gets a bogus good credit score in his name. The problem is that the renters -- Clark in this example -- have been defaulting at huge rates. So now the credit bureaus are just eliminating all authorized user credit standing across the board.

Women (or men) who have been married for many years and have always used their spouse's credit cards in lieu of building their own credit will be most affected by this change. They'll go from having great credit to zero credit overnight. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that there are more than three million women who have no credit standing of their own. Clark sometimes gets calls from new widows who suddenly have to deal with all the finances after a husband's death. He advises all women to have credit of their own. If you don't already have two credit cards in your name, now is the time to get them.