Credit

Credit cards can protect you against fraudulent charges, and some can bag you cash-back rewards. But perhaps the best thing about paying with a credit card is that in the event of a dispute with a merchant, it provides the ultimate ace up your sleeve: the chargeback.

For Web-based small businesses, finding the money to expand can be a real challenge, especially in these times of tight credit. Enter Kabbage, an online financing company that bases its business lending criteria on Web-oriented benchmarks.

Banks are still being pretty stingy about extending credit these days, when it comes to things like credit cards and mortgages. But there's one big exception: Banks are giving out car loans like they're going out of style.

It has never been more important to have good credit, but it's no easy task to go against the ratings agencies when your credit report is wrong. Now though, you have an ally in your corner: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"Octomom" Nadya Suleman has taken on some fairly sleazy jobs to support her super-sized family: reality TV star, stripper, porn actress. But this may be a new low. She's out to become America's most fecund financial adviser, shilling for a payday lending company called OctoLoan.

With interest rates at record lows, now is the time to refinance your mortgage. But what if you find an old unpaid debt that's impairing your credit score? The answer isn't as obvious as you might think.

America's big banks are still deeply hesitant to lend money to most ordinary folks. But in the year's since the financial crisis knocked the legs out from under us, an alternative borrowing option has been gaining ground: peer-to-peer lending.