Issues in the news recently bring attention to the misfortune that can come to those who are in dire financial straits. The money and debt problems are bad enough, but these consumers often turn to "solutions" that make the problem much worse:

• Payday loans - we've written quite a bit about these
• Tax refund anticipation loans (RALs) - see our blog items
• Advance fee credit cards - federal charges in East St. Louis recently filed against an operator of one of these bogus operations. And AG Nixon shut one down in the 1990s.
• Subprime loans - these have been all over the financial news recently, although you may have missed it because the press tends to put this stuff in business sections and on financial TV programs. A lot of consumers will never go there. Here is the quick story on subprime lenders: They give loans to people with poor credit. These loans tend to be high-fee, high-interest rate and sometimes adjustable. That means the interest rate could skyrocket after a period of time, like 2 years. And now that housing prices are down, people with subprime mortgages are in real trouble, because they may owe more than their house is worth.
• Credit repair scams - if you have bad credit, nobody but you can repair it - by paying your bills and establishing good credit, starting now. We have a consumer publication on this.

Instead, a good first place to turn is the National Foundation for Credit Counseling . This organization can hook you up with a legitimate credit counselor (there are lots of sharks out there). If debt is your problem, some of these counselors will even work for free, negotiating a fee arrangement with your creditors in return for helping get your bills paid.

See pp. 22-23 of our Know Your Rights publication (PDF) for more on all this.