Been there, done that...lint is such a HUGE annoyance to my life. We're in a 2nd floor condo where the dryer vent ducting goes to the roof through the attic over 20 feet and several elbows. My husband bought the condo years before we met, and the ducting was clogged after several years. At the time, he decided to disconnect the vent from the duct. The resulting moisture did some damage to the cabinetry (swelling of the particle board, even under layers of oil-based paint). Soon after we married, he decided we needed to fix the problem correctly. He went up into the attic and disassembled the ducting, brought it outside, and blew it out with his air compressor. I pushed some cleaning tool through it as well. We can't be doing this regularly! I mean preferably, never again! So, I had him put a filter -- a gallon paint strainer -- over the dryer vent where it connects to the machine. This clogs every month or so, we pull the machine out, disconnect the vent, clean the strainer, and put it back. This is still an annoying chore, but not the nightmare of dealing with the whole duct run. My husband had a cool idea, that what we need to do is sew a new, longer strainer that tapers to a skinny point, so that even when it clogs at the point, there can still be air flowing past the clogged strainer, and we should be able to go longer between cleanings. We got a new dryer last summer, and pulled the ducting out of the attic to clean it -- but it was already clean as a whistle. So, our secondary filter system has kept the duct run clean for 9 years. I found you can buy secondary lint traps with a door that opens to clean them out, but we don't have room to install the box in our laundry room, and I don't think it would work any better or be easier to clean than our homemade filter. When I redo the floor, I plan to put magic slider thingies under the dryer feet to make it easier to move in and out, plus I won't want to gouge my new floor. I have researched other solutions. People claim that solid metal vent will maintain better airflow than pleated, but I think it will still clog because we need 2 90-degree elbows to get it connected to the duct in the wall. And if it clogs, how do we pull out the machine with a non-stretching vent? If we could move the duct in the wall to match the dryer vent outlet, that would eliminate 2 elbows and would probably help... I also found you can install a secondary fan in the ducting near the exit, increasing the airspeed in long ducts so the lint won't clog. They cost $150-200, but if I never had to clean out the duct run or pull out the dryer to clean my makeshift secondary lint trap ever again, it would be well worth it. I also think that our ducting is leaky somewhere, because rooms on the other side of the wall (our master bath) get crusted with lint all the time. Finding and sealing those leaks would probably improve airspeed some, plus save me tons of work cleaning the lint all the time. I think the additional fan is the way to go. In 2 other areas where we replaced an ineffective low-cfm cheap fan with a high-cfm good one, like the hood over our cooktop, it made an amazing difference, night and day. Here is a link that might be useful: example of dryer duct fan

"Suppose a bill was approx 428.00. If you made no more charges, payed mim. amout it would take 3 years to pay this off and you would pay 544.00 in interest!! That is scary. Like I said, please read your statements very carefully especially this month and the new rules went into effect today, but there are loopholes also." This is actually BETTER THAN the way it used to be. The minimum amount due each month has INCREASED, which LOWERS the amount of time it will take to pay off the total balance; and it also LOWERS the total amount that you will have paid by the time it's totally paid off. Another change that is an improvement is when you have balances that are subject to different finance charge rates... Here's how the old system worked --- Let's say you have a card with a $468 balance at 22% interest. The card issuer runs a promotion where you can transfer a balance from a different card, and pay only 1.99% interest on that transferred balance. So, you transfer $500 from another card. You make a payment of $125. That payment will be applied towards the $500 balance at the lower interest rate, so the bank will charge you the maximum interest on the $468, because there wasn't any payment made against it. Each month when you make your payment, the payment will be applied towards whatever remains from that transferred $500. It's only AFTER the $500 is paid off that any of your monthly payment will be applied towards that original $468. And all that time, you'll be hit with a high monthly finance charge. Under the new system, if you have balances at different interest rates, any payment you make will be applied first towards the balance with the higher interest rate. This will ultimately save you $$$ in finance charges. Another thing that has changed is Over Limit Fees. Used to be that if you had, say, a $10,000 credit limit and a $9,000 balance owing, you could still charge more than $1,000 and the bank would accept the transaction, and then they'd turn around and tack on a $35 (or more) fee for going over your credit limit. Now, they won't charge that fee, BUT THEY WON'T ACCEPT ANY TRANSACTION THAT WOULD PUT YOUR BALANCE OVER YOUR LIMIT -- UNLESS YOU AGREE, IN WRITING, TO ALLOW OVER LIMIT FEES FOR ACCEPTING THE ADDITIONAL TRANSACTIONS. As Mary C said, "People should have been reading their bills from the get-go!"

FHA required 620. They are a young couple, had a run of financial trouble (husband's employer went out of business). The couple tightened their belts until husband found a new job; they bought groceries & paid their rent & paid their utilities & insurance, but they were 30 days late on a $30 *credit card bill* for 2 months*, & there's no way these days for an underwriter to make adjustments. In the past, you could document something like that & the underwriter could adjust for it. Today, if you have a lower credit score, you have to re-build for the next 6 months or so.

Leslie, I cancelled several credit cards a few years ago and was astounded to learn later the companies had kept my accounts open! This is so wrong, as it gives thieves unnecessary opportunities to commit ID theft. If you do cancel, be sure to follow up with the company to be sure no one else can use the account. Clark Howard gives good tips about this, as well. Here is a link that might be useful: Clark Howard