The world of credit-related Web sites is as varied as it is vast. You can buy your credit reports and credit scores online. You can check your property’s value and monitor your credit online. You can monitor your FICO scores and file credit report disputes online. Most credit professionals are aware of all of these Web sites and what they offer.

That’s why the past week has been so interesting to, well, me. And when I say “me” I mean me, personally. I sold the domain Scorewell.com after owning it for almost eight years. Clearly with a credit scoring background I registered the domain with the intent to someday do something at that site. Perhaps I’d start a credit score blog or a build a retail Web site selling credit related services.

Of course I did neither. With a busy personal life and a busier professional life I was unable to leverage the Web site domain name, which is why I was open to the idea of selling it.

Now, I’m not an expert in domain name sales but I do know this much…nobody is going to spend what I was offered without big plans for the domain. It would be like buying a $10,000 watch and then throwing it in a vault. And no, I was not offered anything close to $10,000 but the amount was significant and smelled of “corporate money.”

Something tells me that within six months you’ll see big things at Scorewell.com. The buyer didn’t disclose whom he was representing and I didn’t ask. It wasn’t my business. But we did use an escrow company and a 3rd party professional services company to facilitate the entire sale and transfer of the domain name. Again, another reason to believe this wasn’t some kid in his basement wanting to build a Web site.

There’s a chance I could be completely overreacting and it will have nothing to do with credit or credit scoring. Scorewell could have been purchased with the idea of selling SAT or ACT prep courses. Or, it could be the latest singles or online dating Web site. Or it could be a site that sells bowling balls. I suppose credit management isn’t the only “test” you want to score well on.

But how cool would it be to see a big budget commercial selling credit products on my old domain? And I know what some of you are already thinking; “you should have held out for more money.” I’m not a greedy guy. I might have actually given it to the buyer, but he never asked. And as my wife has already told me… don’t let the ink dry on that check. Gotta run. I’m headed to the bank.

John Ulzheimer – Credit scoring and credit reporting expert and author, John is the President of Consumer Education for Credit.com. Formerly with Equifax and Fair Isaac, John shares his unique insight of the inner workings of credit scoring models and the credit reporting industry on CreditBloggers.com.

You've done everything right. You had your service pre-authorized, you remembered to bring your insurance card, you paid your deductible — you’re a good patient. But when the doctor’s office attempts to file a claim to cover the cost of services, the insurance company refuses to pay. Now the doctor’s office is after you for payment.

This story is all too common and can lead to medical collections polluting your credit reports and negatively impacting your credit scores. But it wasn’t your fault, clearly. So should medical collections be counted in your credit scores? As of today, they are. And they’re counted exactly the same as a collection for any other unpaid debt. The consumer is screaming foul, but is his anger justified?

There are two sides to this argument. The consumer side, which clearly believes that medical debts should not even be reported to the credit bureaus in the first place. Then there’s the industry side, which believes there is empirical value to the collection, regardless of why it’s on your credit reports.

FICO partially addressed this issue with FICO 08, which ignores all collections with an original amount less than $100. But does that go far enough? Maybe, maybe not. I would argue that it’s not FICO’s place to get involved with credit reporting issues. That’s not their “sandbox.” This is a credit bureau issue clear as day.

The Medical Debt Relief Act would require the credit bureaus to purge medical collections that are paid or settled, regardless of how old they are. This is a clear win for the consumer but is it a loss for the lenders who depend on full and accurate credit reporting to make loan decisions? Is there a difference between an insurance snafu like the one above and a consumer who wrote a bad check for his deductible? Of course there is. One would seem to be a more elevated credit risk than the other. But from a credit reporting perspective, they look identical. So, removing both collections when paid or settled would be good and bad, right?

This is a slippery slope. Already insurance regulators have watered down what can be used from a credit report to calculate your insurance risk score. In some states inquiries can’t be counted while in other states they’re fair game. Nobody has ever argued that inquiries are not predictive of elevated risk. This was a political decision plain and simple. What’s next? Can’t consider foreclosures, bankruptcies, charge offs, or repossessions? If so, what’s the point of your lender buying a credit report?

And for those of you who would love to see this Brave New World sans credit reports and scores, best of luck trying to get any loan of any type. You’ll find yourself making 50% down payments and paying 75% interest to subsidize the risk. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, my friends. Beware the restrictions on credit reporting.

John Ulzheimer – Credit scoring and credit reporting expert and author, John is the President of Consumer Education for Credit.com. Formerly with Equifax and Fair Isaac, John shares his unique insight of the inner workings of credit scoring models and the credit reporting industry on CreditBloggers.com.

I've owned my current computer (a MacBook Pro) for almost three years. The 120 GB hard drive was nearly full, so I bought a 640 GB hard drive for about $120 and swapped it in. (It was pretty easy; I used the excellent instructions at iFixIt.com). My plan is to hang onto the computer for another two years before I replace it with a new one.

But when the time comes to pay for a new computer, where will the money come from? I might not have the $3000 I'll need, unless I start saving now. I decided to try out SmartyPig.com, a service that lets you transfer a set amount of money from your bank account every month (or other period you specify) into an online piggy bank. It's FDIC insured, and it pays 2.15% interest (up to $50,000, after which it drops to 1/2%). There are no hidden fees to use the service.

Once a month, SmartyPig is going to transfer $125 from my checking account into a piggy I've labeled "Computer." (It calculated how much I'd need to put away each month to meet my goal in two years.) When I've reached my goal I can either opt to have the money transferred back to my checking account, or I can have it sent to me in the form of a retail card (like Amazon.com) and receive up to a 12% "cash boost." Because Amazon sells Macintosh computers, I'll be able to use that to buy extra memory or other gear.

But the real savings I'll get from using SmartyPig is avoiding credit card interest charges. Using Credit.com's handy Credit Card Repayment Calculator I discovered that if I were to use a credit card with a 12% APR to buy a $3000 computer system and made the minimum monthly payment, I would pay $1846.64 in interest. Plus it would take me over 15 years to pay off the balance, which means I'd probably be paying for my nest computer and at least a couple of others at the same time.

SmartyPig is good for my well-being, too. It's more satisfying to set a financial goal and wait to buy something I want instead of charging it. When I pay for a big ticket item with money I've earned and saved, I'm more likely to appreciate it than I would if I buy it on credit.

I think I'll try using SmartyPig to start a vacation savings piggy and a new car piggy.

Mark Frauenfelder – Editor-in-chief of MAKE magazine and the founder of the popular Boing Boing weblog, Mark was an editor at Wired from 1993-1998 and is the founding editor of Wired Online.

Many large banks are doing away with FREE checking and replacing it with FEE checking. John Ulzheimer of Credit.com examines this trend and explains why it’s happening and what you can do about it.

Why is this happening?

The CARD Act is going to cost credit card issuers tens of billions of dollars in lost over limit fees -- in addition to the unknown costs to comply with other provisions of the Act. The issuers are going to want to recoup that money. Eliminating free checking for many customers is just another fee to help them makeup the loss. This is fee "whack-a'mole" – they eliminate one fee (over-limit) but simply replace it with another (no more free checking).

Is this happening everywhere?

We tend to focus on the 5-10 largest banks and assume that all banks are doing the same things. But that's not the case. Go small and go local (credit unions and regional banks) and you'll likely be able to avoid the checking account fees.

I want to stay with my bank. How can I avoid their checking account fees?

There are ways to avoid the checking account charges (check with your bank for your options). Using online bill pay, keeping a minimum deposit, using direct deposit...these are some of the ways. Really, this is going to impact the folks who have a little bit of money in the bank and do nothing at all with the account.

Will all large banks do this?

Banks are "monkey see, monkey do", so you should expect more of the big boys to test the concept of "fee checking" rather than "free checking." If one does it successfully, then others will likely copy their strategy.

I’ve had enough!! What can I do to get even?

Vote with your money! If you don't like the new fees ...take your business elsewhere.

John Ulzheimer – Credit scoring and credit reporting expert and author, John is the President of Consumer Education for Credit.com. Formerly with Equifax and Fair Isaac, John shares his unique insight of the inner workings of credit scoring models and the credit reporting industry on CreditBloggers.com.

If you are one of the millions of credit card holders who saw your credit card rates go up over the past couple years -- perhaps for some minor infraction like a payment that was a few hours late, or for no good reason at all -- then you may have taken note of a provision in the Credit CARD Act that was supposed to provide some relief.

Under the CARD Act, credit card companies are supposed to review the accounts of anyone whose rate was raised on or after January 1, 2009 to determine whether the reasons the rate was increased still apply and, if not, bring the rate back down.

The Federal Reserve recently released its guidelines describing how this process should work and for those waiting for relief, my advice is to you is: Don't hold your breath.

You can read more about the Fed's guidelines for reducing credit card rates here. But to summarize, the Fed's guidelines basically leave it up to issuers to decide what, if anything, they want to do for cardholders whose rates went up. And given their track record, I don't expect they will do much. And the first batch of reviews isn't due until February 2011. Even if issuers do lower some rates somewhat then, those cardholders will have paid a boatload of interest in the meantime. Unlike rate hikes that were in many cases retroactive before the CARD Act kicked in, these rate decreases aren't.

So while the Credit CARD Act has provided cardholders with a lot more protection than they had in the past, there are probably still a whole lot of people were wondering why it didn't do anything for them.