Improving your credit score is an essential way to gain greater financial options and more favorable credit offers from lenders. However, achieving a high credit score is not an instant fix, but that does not mean that you cannot take steps to gradually improve it. Today’s Equifax Finance Blog written by Equifax Experts gives a “Top Ten” list of strategies to improve your credit score.

Tip 5: Know your FICO credit score. You are allowed one free credit report per year from one of the three major credit bureaus, so inform yourself about what these numbers mean.

Tip 4: Check your credit report for incorrect information. One of the first signs of identity theft is false information on your credit report. Don’t let an identity thief trash your credit score.

Tip 3: Consider opening new credit cards. However, apply for new accounts only as needed, and try to avoid applying for multiple cards over a short period of time. Opening a new card may help you by increasing available credit.

Tip 2: Pay your bills on time, every time. The longer you pay your bills on time, the better your score.

ForEquifax Experts' #1 tip on how to improve your credit score and for more strategies, read the whole post at http://blog.equifax.com/credit/become-a-better-borrower-with-your-credit-score/.

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors.

Creating your family's spending plan is an important and fulfilling task to accomplish. It reflects your family's goals, values, and priorities. The Equifax Finance Blog welcomed new Family Money blogger Miranda Marquit this week. Her post about steps and considerations to make when creating your family's spending plan offers lots of good advice.

Marquit does not believe in "Keeping Up With the Joneses". Instead, she recommends thinking about what defines you as a family. Does your family spend time together? Take vacations? Partake in lots of extracurricular activities? From there, you can set goals and prioritize how to allocate your money for short- and long-term financial goals.

Short-term allocations may go to regular expenses like your house payment, insurance, utilities, groceries and clothing. Long-term financial goals can be things like vacations, college funds or planning for retirement. Also, consider your debts. Marquit suggests putting more of your available resources toward debt reduction as a short-term priority.

For more advice on building a spending plan that will help you achieve your family's financial goals, visit my fellow blogger's post at the Equifax Finance Blog.

I'd love to hear your goals and how you're working to achieve them. Leave me a comment below.

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors.

From fellow Equifax blogger and tax expert Eva Rosenberg, today's Equifax post offers a head's up for some changes for your taxes this year. It's unusual that the IRS adds new forms but this year is different. Rosenberg believes this is an effort to bridge the $450 billion tax gap. Regardless of the reasoning, The IRS has 2 new forms that could affect your tax strategy for 2012. 

Which forms?

Schedule C: Profit or Loss from Business. There have been a few additional boxes and lines to fill out on this form.

Form 8918: Uncollected Social Security and Medicare Tax on Wages. Unlike before where it is changes to a form, Form 8918 is a new form that asks a series of questions essentially to prove that you're an employee. 

For a comprehensive list of changes and how they affect you, read the full post on the Equifax Finance blog. 

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors.

As technology becomes more accessible, so does our personal information. How can you avoid identity theft? On today's Equifax finance blog, a post gives you another option for limiting access to your personal records. Unlike security freezes and fraud alerts, you can limit who views your credit report by putting a lock on it.

A security lock can be valuable because you can keep it in place or lift it at will. Naturally if you need someone to view it for applying for a loan, refinancing your mortgage, setting up new utility accounts and opening a new credit card, you will need to give access to your credit report. But otherwise, a security lock is a great way to ensure those not allowed to view your personal information aren't allowed access.

If someone has access to your credit report they could apply for new lines of credit with your personal information. After being granted a line of credit in your name, they could open up accounts and make purchases that affect your credit. For when to lock your account and a list of people who are can't be locked out, read the full post on Equifax finance blog.

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors.

In his State of the Union speech last week, President Obama called for an end to the red tape that plagues underwater homeowners looking to refinance. 

According to the new mortgage refinance plan the White House plans to send to Congress, big banks would be forced to foot the bill, which could total anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion. The plan would allow private-label mortgages - not those guaranteed by Freddie and Fannie - to refinance through the Federal Housing Administration (HUD).

In a speech at Falls Church, Va., on Wednesday, President Obama said:

"I want to be clear. This plan, like the other actions we've taken, will not help the neighbors down the street who bought a house they couldn't afford, then walked away and left a foreclosed home behind."

"It's not designed for those who've acted irresponsibly, but it can help those who acted responsibly... What this plan will do is help millions of homeowners who make their payments on time but find themselves trapped under falling home values or wrapped up in red tape."

To see the highlights of the plan and how they help homeowners, visit my CBS MoneyWatch blog.

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors. 

According to Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), mortgage rates have fallen to historic lows yet again.

Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac, attributes the falling rates to an economy that's growing slower than experts had hoped for:

"Most mortgage rates eased to all-time record lows this week as fourth quarter growth in the economy fell short of market predictions," Nothaft writes. "The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose 2.8 percent in the final three months of 2011, below the market consensus forecase of 3.0 percent, while consumer spending in December was flat."

"One bright spot, however," Nothaft notes, "was that fixed residential investment increased for the third consecutive quarter and residential construction spending rebounded in December, rising 0.7 percent."

To see the new rates, visit my CBS MoneyWatch blog.

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors. 

What is a reverse mortgage? A reverse mortgage is a government-insured home loan that lets homeowners turn some of the equity from their home into cash. The difference between a reverse mortgage and a standard home equity loan is that reverse mortgage consumers must be age 62 or older, must own the home outright (or have a low mortgage balance that can be paid off at closing with proceeds from the reverse loan), and must live in the home.

Chances are if you qualify for a reverse mortgage then you have been approached by reverse mortgage scams. According to the FBI, many seniors are offered free homes, investment opportunities, and foreclosure or refinance assistance.

But how do scam artists find those who qualify for reverse mortgages?

• Television, radio, billboard and mailer advertisements.
• Local churches.
• Investment seminars.

But how can you tell if it's a scam? You can judge by how the reverse mortgage lender approaches you with terminology and stipulations for how you should proceed. For four red flags, view my post How to Avoid a Reverse Mortgage Scam on my Equifax Finance blog.

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors.  

According to an investigation by NPR and ProPublica, Freddie Mac may be profiting off homeowners' high-rate mortgages. The report suggests that at the same time the agency was profiting, it was also making it more difficult for those locked in high-rate mortgages to refinance.

Freddie and its cousin, Fannie Mae, have imposed new rules and regulations, and introduced new fees, thereby narrowing the number of borrowers who qualify for a Freddie-insured mortgage.

Scott Simon, managing director of the mortgage-backed securities team at bond trading investment firm PIMCO, says this puts the government-sponsored entity (GSE) "squarely on the opposite side of the homeowner. So if they homeowner lost and was unable to refinance they win, and if the homeowner can refinance, they lose."

A spokesman for Freddie Mac insists that is not the case. "Refinancing is Freddie Mac's bread and butter in today's marketplace... in three years we refinanced more than 4 million mortgages totaling $855 billion."

To read the full story, visit my CBS MoneyWatch blog.

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors. 

Government officials announced Monday that the nation's five biggest mortgage lenders have agreed to overhaul the industry, after robo-signing and deceptive foreclosure practices caused many consumers to lose their homes. The proposed settlement could reach $25 billion.

Even so, those who lost their homes to foreclosure are unlikely to get them back. Only about half the households who might be eligible for assistance will likely receive checks, and those checks will only be $1,800 each. That's a good amount of money, but nowhere near the cost of a home.

It's unlikely a settlement will be reached this week, according to a spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who has led the 50-state negotiations. President Obama is expected to discuss the settlement in his State of the Union address tonight.

Some states have disagreed over what terms to offer banks, and the proposed settlement does not protect banks from future criminal lawsuits by individual states.

To find out how the $25 billion would be spent, and for more details on the propsed settlement, visit my CBS MoneyWatch blog. 

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors. 

On Friday, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced it would toughen standards for lenders authorized to insure mortgages on its behalf, without first submitting documents to the agency. This news comes after it was revealed the 30-day delinquency rate on FHA mortgages neared 18 percent in December.

Some experts warn that FHA could soon require a bailout, something Main Street Americans certainly don't need. FHA Commissioner Carol Galante hopes the rule changes will loosen credit for borrowers and help speed up the housing recovery.

Some of the key changes include:

• A stronger approval process
• Stricter monitoring of FHA-approved lenders
• Compensation to FHA for insurance claims

For more details on the rule changes, and to learn how this effects consumers, visit my CBS MoneyWatch blog.

Ilyce Glink is the author of several books, including 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask and Buy, Close, Move In!. She blogs about money and real estate at ThinkGlink.com, The Equifax Personal Finance Blogand CBS Moneywatch She is Chief Content Strategist at RealtyJoin.com, a community for real estate investors.