Get all your credit card questions answered in one place with the Federal Reserve Board's credit card fact sheet.

Topics such as APRs, grace periods, finance charges, and liability limits are covered here, as well as a great checklist to help you compare different credit cards: you'll have to have the credit card data in front of you for the cards you're thinking about in order to fill out this worksheet, but it's a great, practical way to narrow down this somewhat complicated information.

Ok, I admit it: I've tried and tried to open a door using only a credit card, and it's never worked. But hope springs eternal - especially now that WikiHow's got clear and temptingly easy instructions. So I'll be the one standing out in the hallway trying to key in my apartment with the AmEx tonight.

Any lifehackers successfully get a door open with the Visa? Let us know in the comments. —Gina Trapani

The Unclutterer weblog knows that the best part of decluttering your desktop is tossing your sensitive, unneeded paper trail into the jaws of a good paper shredder. But before you get too shred-happy, you need to know what to shred, when it can be shredded, and what you should actually keep. For example:

Shred Now:

• Credit card applications
• Expired credit cards, bank cards, passports, visas, and identification cards (college, military, employee badges, etc.)

Aside from the "Shred Now" list, Unclutterer highlights the documents you should shred on a monthly, yearly, and 7-10 year basis, along with those docs you should never shred (like birth/marriage/divorce/death certificates). If you're a shred junkie, share your best shredding practices and techniques in the comments. — Adam Pash

The Credit Score Tips & Advice weblog points out 8 steps you should take in the event that your identity is stolen.

Identity theft is certainly a terrifying prospect - one that no one really wants to think about - but in the unfortunate event that your identity is stolen, these 8 steps look like a good starting point to getting your life back. As several of this post's commenters point out, nothing you do guarantees you can get everything back to normal if your identity is stolen. However, these 8 tips will at least give you a good place to start.

Check out our sister site, Consumerist, for another

The Getting Finances Done weblog posts a few methods for taking control of the debt you may have racked up this holiday season.

Some of the tips are better than others, but one thing seems certain: if you spent way more than you expected this holiday season, you should probably either start saving now for next December, or you should re-evaluate your holiday budget. Every year we do our best to help you

Finance blogger No Credit Needed uses cold hard cash to pay for everything and anything and hasn't swiped a credit card in two years.

I love to stand in line, with people behind me waiting to check out, and count out my exact change to the cashier. Contrary to popular belief, this takes just about the same amount of time as it does to swipe a card, grab a pen, sign a receipt and put the card back in your wallet. Also, spending $100 in cash "hurts" a little bit more than swiping a card for $100, and it keeps me disciplined.

While it must be nice to not get a credit card bill every month, the opposite argument goes like this: use your credit card whenever possible to track your spending without having to write it down or organize receipts (just download it into Quicken every few weeks). Then again, that way you've got to have the discipline and cash to never carry a balance either, so it depends if credit card usage turns you into a financial Mr. Hyde. Credit cards: yay or nay? Let us know what you think in the comments. — Gina Trapani

I Do Not Use Credit Cards [No Credit Needed via Get Rich Slowly]

"Things I wish Mom taught me about money" [Personal Finance]

The Women's Personal Finance blog lists 46 things they wish Mom had told them about finance. Alongside "duh" items like "spend less than you earn," there's some less obvious stuff here too, like:

Keep Credit Card Balances Below Half of the Credit Limit. Credit cards below the 50% mark create higher marks on credit reports than those past the half waypoint of the limit. Continuously "maxing-out" you credit cards is considered to be almost as bad as a few late payments.

For students wondering how to save cash on that big name school:

Community College Credits Transfer to Big-Name, 4-Year Universities. By hitting the college books at a close to home locale, not only are you saving money on the courses, you're saving a bundle on room & board. After an associate degree is attained from your local CC, transfer the credits to your dream school- your bachelors degree will contain the name of your beloved higher learning institute, and you'll have saved over $50,000.

Good read for anyone cleaning financial house. — Gina Trapani