Home: Personal Finance: Money Management: Credit features web sites containing consumer information related to the topics of use, abuse, and management of credit, especially short- and long-term loans and credit cards. This subcategory, counseling and repair, is for sites _about_ credit counseling and _about_ "credit repair."

This category is reserved for companies that provide consumers with a copy of their own personal credit report. A symlink (@link) is provided to the appropriate Business category for credit reporting agencies that sell credit reports to third parties. Although the Fair Credit Reporting Act provides that a consumer may obtain a disclosure of the contents of their own credit information on file with a consumer reporting agency, this service is only free if they have been denied credit within the past 60 days because of a report prepared by the agency. Editors should use caution so as not to unnecessarily duplicate listings in this category for reporting agencies whose primary business is the sale of credit information to third parties. Please do not suggest sites to this category unless your primary business is the sale of credit reports directly to the consumer.

Credit and debit cards are a "cashless" way to pay for goods and services. Debit cards take money from an existing bank account. Credit card payments are a form of a loan from a bank and must be repaid.

Links to sites providing legal citations of laws pertaining to the application, approval, underwriting, and collection of credit accounts. These are the laws that govern the approval and administration of loan applications, billing of credit accounts, collection practices employed by creditors or their agents, and, the reporting of credit by credit bureaus and commercial agencies in the United States.