Few things are more satisfying than driving your brand-new car – until you realize that it lost value immediately after you left the dealership. Thanks to depreciation, it's possible for a car to lose over 20% of its starting value within the first year. According to CARFAX data, cars can lose over 10% of their value after the first month.

During the early stages of car ownership, it's easy for a car loan to be underwater – meaning that you owe more on the loan than the current value of the car. With a down payment of 20% or less, you're very likely to have an underwater period.

If all goes well, it's okay to be underwater. You'll continue to make payments and the car's value should overtake the remaining loan balance as the balance decreases. Early payments are mostly dedicated to interest and not principal – so it takes time to go from negative to positive equity. As long as you hold onto the car long enough, you should be fine.

What happens when all ...

Can your checking account affect your credit score? It's possible, but only in certain circumstances that you should avoid.

Your credit score is calculated using information from your credit report, which is a history of all of your credit-based transactions. Checking accounts are funded by your deposits – there's no borrowing of money involved. Normal daily activities like writing checks and transferring funds aren't reported to credit reporting agencies and don't show up on your credit report.

When you open a new checking account, banks can ask for a hard credit pull as part of your evaluation. Hard credit pulls will cause a small temporary drop in your credit score. However, most banks use soft credit pulls that do not affect your credit score at all.

So how can checking account activity affect your credit score? Generally, there's only one way to damage your credit report with a checking account. You have to allow your checking account to be used fo...

With the school season starting again, education is job number one for students and parents alike. A proper education includes an education in personal finance, and one of the best ways to start is to learn how to protect yourself against scams.

You can and should learn fast, too, because scams can become more common during the back-to-school buying season. Here are some practical suggestions on how to avoid credit and debit card fraudsters:

• Only patronize known retailers.
  
  
• Avoid jackpot online deals that offer items like $3,000 laptops for $400. These are often scams.


• "Good PC hygiene" cannot be overstated for every handheld device, laptop, and phone. Anti-virus and anti-malware programs are key to staying safer online.


• Avoid pooling or sharing credit card information in a dorm setting. There is no reason for students to share...