My 1998 Jeep Cherokee and I had a pretty rough holiday season. Luckily, we came out of it a little wiser about cost-saving car maintenance tasks. As a friend of mine in the car business says, You make monthly payments on any car you get—with an old car, its just in repairs and extra maintenance.” True enough. As hard as it is to set aside funds for ongoing repairs and maintenance, it can save you from expensive, unexpected repairs like I just had. Keep these in mind:

1.    Fluid check frenzy. Even those of us who aren’t car savvy can learn to check fluid levels regularly; including oil, coolant, power steering and transmission. 2.    Oil changes, baby. Most experts recommend having your oil and filter changed every 3,000 miles or 6 months. Look online for the specific recommendations for your ride. 3.    Totally tires. Stay on top of tire alignment, pressure and wear by checking the pressure once a month and replacing tires if the wear bars are flush with the surface of the tread. 4.    Ooh la la air filters. These need to be changed out every couple of months to about a year, depending on where you drive. 5.    About auto transmission. Staying on top of your automatic transmission can save you from transmission failure (yikes)! Experts recommend changing the fluid and filters every 25k to 30k miles. 6.    Coolant craze. Most vehicle manufacturers recommend changing coolant every 2 to 3 years or 30k miles. Side note: Watch for sinking levels, which can mean a leak. 7.    Brake for brakes. Have your mechanic check your brakes at least once a year. As for brake fluid, check it regularly and have it changed every 2 to 3 years. 8.    Go fuel filter. Changing it every 30k miles is the standard; a new filter can cost just $20 and save you from thousands of dollars in damage.

These are a few tips to start with; you can get more in-depth and expert info. from Car Talk and edmunds.com.  Remember that choosing a good, honest mechanic is an important part of staying on top of preventative maintenance—online reviews and referrals from friends are a good place to start.

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Though only five years old, Mint.com has quickly established itself as a highly recognized personal finance management web-service. For the uninitiated, Mint.com has been listed by Time Magazine as a top-50 website for the last three consecutive years and is the winner of the Webby Award for Excellence on the Internet for Best Financial Service in 2009, 2010, and 2011, beating out financial news giants CNNMoney, NY Times Dealbook, Nerdwallet and Yahoo! Finance.

Mint.com allows its users to aggregate their banking accounts, investments, insurance policies, IRAs and mortgages into its management system which automatically provides up-to-date categorization, support and tools for budgeting analysis and bill reminder services. Their services are essential for those wanting to take control of their financial lives and improve their credit scores. Best of all, Mint.com is completely free.

The site was conceived by Aaron Patzer in 2006 after quitting his day job as a software architect to develop a method for analyzing numerous financial documents with high accuracy. After gaining the interest of First Round Capital, Mint.com received the seed capital to further develop their concept. Patzer’s ideas ambitions became so popular that grabbed the attention of Intuit, a financial software company and maker of Quicken, which extended an offer to purchase Mint.com for $170 million in late 2009.

CreditRepair.org was granted an opportunity to gain some insight into the company from Aaron Forth, Inuit’s Vice President and General Manager of Personal Finance Group.

CreditRepair.org: How does the current Mint.com differ from the founder’s initial vision for creating it?

Aaron Forth: When Aaron Patzer created Mint, his goal was to answer one simple question: How much did he spend this month? And on what? Aaron created Mint based on the philosophy that money is for living, and with every new feature or product update from bill reminders to Mint’s new iPad app — Mint is giving users a full financial view so they can save, spend and do more with their money. Mint does not differ from Aaron’s initial vision; it is just becoming an extended version that offers more features and helps nearly 7 million people do more with their money.

CR: How has becoming part of the Intuit family affected Mint?

AF: Mint was acquired by Intuit in November 2009 and since then the Mint team has successfully integrated with Intuit’s Personal Finance Group — incorporating Intuit company goals, philosophies and best practices into each product or feature we create. We have been lucky to be able to learn from such a successful financial company and implement their strategies into making the Mint product the best it can be, as well as being able to contribute to the creation and updates of existing products like Quicken.

CR: How does Mint differentiate from the competition like Learnvest.com and Manilla.com?

AF: Mint.com is a completely free online personal finance software that allows users to see all their financial accounts in one place, making it easy to set and keep to budgets, helping identify money saving ideas and managing money on the go with its iPhone, Android and iPad apps. From bill reminders to Ways to Save to the Goals feature, Mint is a constant resource to help users stay on top of their finances. Users can find a great number of tips and advice on the MintLife blog and learn about the importance of good money management at an early age with Mint’s Financial Literacy program. Mint offers a FULL view of all finances for every stage of life.

CR: Are you planning to add bill payment as a paid feature/add-on for Mint users?

AF: Mint currently offers a bill reminders feature that alerts users when an upcoming bill is due, but does not have the specific bill pay feature. Mint is always looking into new ways to help our users have the most complete financial management experience.

CR: Security is a big issue that comes up when Mint.com is mentioned, what measures are taken to ensure security of user’s finances?

AF: Security is a top priority that Mint takes very seriously. Mint uses the same 128-bit encryption and physical security that banks use. Mint’s practices are monitored and verified by TRUSTe, VeriSign and Hackersafe, and supported by RSA Security. Mint is also a “read-only” service, meaning you can organize and analyze your finances, but you can’t move funds between —or out of — any account using Mint. And neither can anyone else. In addition, Mint increases your financial security through email and text alerts that notify you about any large purchases or unusual changes in your accounts and more.

CR: What else is in the cards for Mint’s future?

AF: Mint is always looking toward the future and finding innovative ways to improve existing products and features along with creating new ones. Mobile is a big initiative for Mint and is something the company, as a whole, will be focusing on for a long time to come. With the recent release of the iPad app and constant improvements to the existing iPhone and Android apps, Mint is available anytime, anyplace. We are always making sure everyone has the resources to be financially literate with tools like our current Financial Literacy program and creating more ways to help people save by providing reliable advice, tips and resources in order to use money for living.

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Are you hung over?

And I’m not talking about the booze-induced hangover (though you might have that, too!)

I’m talking about the post-holiday credit-card hangover …

The one that happens when you realize you spent way more than you meant to spend.

The one that causes a headache when you wake up, see your credit card bills clearly, and realize what you’ve done.

But there’s hope …

You can recover.

In just a few days, I’m starting a new-and-improved 14-Day Credit Challenge, where you can grab your credit card bills by the horns
once and for all.

Here’s the even better news …

The webinar orientation doesn’t cost a penny and I’ll show you how you can have a 720 credit score in just six months. The enhanced program will take your credit score from wherever it is today …

To at least 720.

In just six months!

It’s like aspirin for your credit card bills…

Click here to reserve your spot.

I’m so sure of my new Challenge that I offer a pretty gutsy guarantee: I promise that you’ll have a 720+ credit score in six months, or I’ll pay you $794.

So put my guarantee to the test! Best-case scenario, you’ll have a 720 score. Worst-case scenario, you’ll have $794.

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Our series about six options if you are underwater on your home has drawn a lot of comments. Some readers are wondering whether they should stay and pay or try to get out. Here’s a reader question we received this week:

I have been thinking a lot about whether to keep my home. I really feel like the place is a money hole. I paid $455,000 for my townhouse and the place across the street is selling for $150,000. I still owe $190,000.

I can afford to pay for the place but I feel like I could lose more money in the future. I tried to rent it out but found no promising tenants.

I really don’t know if I should keep it or not. I have a very long one and a half hour commute, and now I have a young child too. I am thinking about just renting a small place near work and starting over. Which of your six options are good for my situation? Please help! — Stuck in California

Dear Stuck,

I can only imagine how stressful this situation is for you, but I think you need more information before you can make a decision. You don’t need to go into “analysis paralysis” but you do need to investigate three things in more detail:

Find out exactly what kind of places are available to rent closer to work in your price range. Don’t just look online—go and look at some places and talk to the landlords so you can get a good idea what they require in terms of first and last, security etc. Get a good feel of whether you could rent an acceptable place for what you are paying now. (And of course check out schools since that will be an important factor with a young child.) If you are in a position to buy in another year or two, consider also looking at homes to rent with an option to buy.

If you discover that you’d have to pay a lot more to live closer to work, or if you can’t find something acceptable in a decent school district, you may decide that it’s better to stay put. Or maybe you’ll discover that for a little more you can get a decent place and save an hour a day in commuting time. You won’t know until you hit the pavement and check out what’s available.

Find out if you will be on the hook for a remaining balance. If it you have a non-recourse loan, the property is the only collateral for the loan and you can likely walk away without worrying that you will be sued for a deficiency. Many purchase money mortgages in California are structured that way. If you are not sure, make an appointment to talk with a real estate attorney who can review your paperwork with you.

Find out what your tax liability may be. Meet with a tax professional (an enrolled agent or CPA) with experience in handling 1099-C and 1099-A issues to learn whether you would owe taxes on the forgiven balance if you do a short sale or walk away. You may be eligible for the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act or the other exceptions or exclusions I outlined in my previous article on this topic. This is an important question because you don’t want to be surprised with a large tax bill.

Read: 1099-C In the Mail? How to Avoid Taxes on Cancelled Debt

Since you bought your home for $455,000 and owe $190,000, it sounds like you’ve lost quite a bit of money that you put into it. That has to be a very tough pill to swallow. It also sounds like you are worried the value can go down further. It’s impossible to predict, though, how much further home values will drop or how long they will take to stabilize and then start going up again in your area. That means there is no single right or wrong answer here. Gather some more information and make the best decision you can knowing that at least you’ve made an informed choice to stay or leave.

Do you have a question for Credit.com’s Credit Experts? Submit it to creditexperts@Credit.com. We can’t respond to every question but we’ll choose the most relevant and educational ones to answer on the blog.

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Dear readers, it’s with a heavy heart that I bid you farewell. My year-long stint as a guest blogger on What’s My Score is coming to an end. For the past 13 months, nothing has motivated me more than questions like, “What do my friends wonder about? What haven’t I written about yet?”

I got the opportunity to cover current events such as the 2011 Financial Literacy & Education Summit. I turned conventional wisdom about wealth and youth on its head, discussing human capital and how personal finance must include our biggest non-financial asset (here’s Part 1 and Part 2). I approached my travels abroad with an eye towards finance, from buying tickets to learning about how other cultures approach this tricky thing called money. In short, I hope you learned half as much as I did.

Thanks for reading and I wish you much prosperity! As always, keep checking back to What’s My Score for more trips and tricks on personal finance.

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A bad credit score can hold you back from a lot of things – buying a car, owning a home, getting good insurance rates, and even from getting a job. Most of the time, your credit score isn’t the only factor that’s considered when you put in an application. Don’t be an all around bad candidate just because your credit is bad. Look great – on paper – even if you have a bad credit score.

Don’t keep making credit mistakes.

The older the negative information on your credit report, the better you look. So, from now on, make sure you pay all your bills on time. Remember that creditors report 30 day late payments, so if you missed your due date by a couple of days, make your payment before the next statement arrives. You’ll still face a late fee, but you’ll avoid having the late payment being entered on your credit report.

Pay off some debt.

You’re a better candidate for credit cards and loans when you have less outstanding debt. When you do have credit card balances, it looks better when those balances are below 30% of the credit limit. So, if you can’t afford to pay off all your balances, at least pay down the balances that are close to the credit limit.

Keep your applications to a minimum.

Even an applicant with a great credit score looks risky when they start applying for several credit cards all at one time. Space out your credit card applications. If you’re denied, wait six months to a year before you apply for a credit card and definitely avoid taking on more credit cards than you can afford to pay back.

Be a good driver and avoid insurance claims.

If you have a bad credit score, chances are you’ll pay a higher insurance premium. But, don’t make matters worse by getting speeding tickets and fender benders. You may be able to get an insurance discount by taking a defensive driving course, so find one in your area. Your local traffic court or DMV can give you some information about traffic courses near you.

Have a bigger down payment.

For big loans like a car loan or mortgage loan, you can improve your chances of getting approved, even with a bad credit score, if you have a big down payment. The more money you can put down, the risk the bank takes on when they lend you money. Banks are typically more comfortable lending money when you have more equity in the asset.

With jobs, have some good references.

A bad credit history can keep you from getting a job. While employers don’t check your credit score, they do sometimes review your credit report, which directly feeds into your credit score. Offset a negative credit history with good references from previous employers and other people who know you well. If you can walk into the job interview with reference letters in hand, it may help your ability to get hired from a job.

Having a bad credit score can handicap you in some ways, but with some work, you can overcome the limitations of a bad credit score.

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