ClarkHoward.com - Credit freeze guide

The new credit card rules that went into effect last month have caused a lot of confusion.

Credit scores have taken on a new role in the recession. Employers are using them to eliminate candidates for jobs, as foolish and mindless as that is. And as always, maintaining and improving your score remains central to getting good rates on insurance, your mortgage and any future credit.

One problem that's vexed a lot of people has been getting hit with a huge new annual fee. In this event, "leapfrogging" can help you. Leapfrogging is when you open a new, annual fee-free account and give your existing card the boot.

Remember, paying down credit card debt is a different and separate issue from the value of having enough credit cards. It's very important for your score that you have between four and six cards.

Meanwhile, here's a thought on how to tweak your score if you have a card with no spending limit -- such as certain American Express and Diner's Club cards. How can they report available credit to a bureau if you have no limit? They simply take your highest balance over a period of time and report that as your limit.

So your goal should be to create an artificial ceiling by charging a ton one month and then paying it off immediately. That effectively becomes your new limit. Remember, this specific tip pertains only to cards with no spending limit -- such as select American Express and Diner's Club cards.

One final word of advice: When you pay off a credit card, don't close the account. Doing so will reduce your available credit and only drive your score down. Again, if you're facing a huge new annual fee on a card that has a zero balance, simply follow Clark's advice on leapfrogging.

These are all tips and trick to manage and manipulate your score. Manipulation is not a negative term here. In fact, a good credit score requires active management and manipulation on your part.

Another year and another successful Habitat for Humanity build. Clark and his listeners had the opportunity to build eight new homes this year with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. Extremely bad weather -- including rain and snow -- was the one constant throughout the process!

The weather got so inclement that a dedication day broadcast scheduled for March 12 had to be canceled on account of lightning!

But despite Mother Nature's disagreeable presence, 2,500 volunteers faithfully showed up build after build to lend a hand. Here's a slideshow of photos from the final build day. (More photos to come next week!)

Clark genuinely appreciates all the warmth and kindness of the volunteers, especially considering the inclement weather. Additional kudos to all the wonderful restaurants that donated lunch to feed volunteers.

The penny-pincher believes deeply in Habitat's mission because it improves neighborhoods and makes the American Dream of owning a home available to more people.

Home ownership creates a whole different psychology and attitude in kids who get a sense of permanence when they have their own bedrooms in their own home. That alone opens enormous possibilities for young children.

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Clark's history with Habitat goes back to 1996. That was the year he first began sponsoring houses and building alongside listeners.

In just seven days of builds, volunteers go from cinder blocks to completed houses that become homes for working families. The future homeowners put sweat equity into the process by building alongside volunteers.

Atlanta Habitat requires prospective homeowner to do 250 hours of volunteer labor; one year of classes on how to handle money; and for the first year they actually live in the homes as renters. After 12 months of on-time payments, they have a retroactive closing and the payments are applied towards their zero-percent interest mortgage.

This program is a hand up, not a hand out.

More than 2,500 large companies around the world have had their computer systems hacked, despite the presence of large IT departments that exist solely to safeguard company data.

Criminals typically send spam through company servers, steal documents and password and put keylogger programs on computers. Even the Department of Homeland Security is now analyzing this worldwide corporate breach to see if a domestic national security threat is involved.

Clark sees parallels with what happened in China earlier this year. Google's China operation faced several cyber-attacks earlier believed to have originated in the communist country. The intent of the attacks seemed to be to ferret out dissidents.

Back at home, current law leaves you exposed if you're a small business that loses money because of a hacking incident. So what's the remedy? Clark's recent advice has been to buy a separate dedicated computer and do all your business banking on that. No surfing the web on your dedicated computer. No e-mailing. No visiting Facebook, MySpace or Twitter.

Computers have become so affordable that it's very possible to get a fully functional one for under $300. Compare that cost with the cost of possibly having your account emptied out!

In addition, the consumer champ wants to put out a new warning for small businesses. Contact your bank and request double or dual authentication on any wires. That means a wire won't automatically take place when someone requests it. The bank must take the additional step of getting a second go ahead from someone at your business before completion.

If you take both of Clark's suggestion, you may actually have some protection under the law. Why? Because you can demonstrate that you've taken due care under the Uniform Commercial Code to secure your account. The bank may have to refund your stolen money. But if you can't prove due care, you'll almost certainly never see your money again.

The era of overpriced college textbooks may be coming to an end, thanks to rewritable e-textbooks designed for popular e-readers like Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle.

Macmillian Publishers is rolling out a proprietary software program called DynamicBooks that will allow professors to continuously update e-textbooks without the enormous expense of re-publishing hard copies.

"Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations," according to The New York Times.

Best of all will be the price, which is expected to be one-third that of a new college textbook.

The power that this development opens for professors to design custom curriculum will be fantastic. It's yet another example of a field where technology is making a big difference and helping to democratize education.