With the evolving financial crisis, lenders are especially vigilant about your credit. What can you do to make sure they don't cut your credit lines and leave you hanging?

The main thing is to keep your nose clean - make your payments on time and practice behavior that generally leads to good credit scores. However, you might even need to watch where you shop.

According to the Investment News, some issuers

"reduce the credit lines of customers who used their cards at pool halls, pawn shops and bars".

Although your transaction details and recreational habits are not part of the FICO credit score, the most commonly used score, these items can show up in other behavioral scoring models. So if you're worried about your credit limits, think twice before swiping that card.

Credit FAQs:

• What is Credit?
• What is a Credit Score?
• How Insurance Scores Work

Interest checking accounts allow you to earn interest on easily accessible cash. With interest rates as low as they are today, you've got to use every tool you can to manage your cash.

An interest checking account is like a mix between checking accounts and savings accounts. Some accounts pay as much or more than savings accounts, but you still have access to your cash with your checkbook and debit card. See how to use interest checking accounts and who some of the major providers are.

• 8 Reasons to Never Write Checks
• Debit Cards - Should You Choose Debit or Credit?

Citigroup got a lifeline over the weekend.

The US government agreed to provide $326 billion in rescue funds, although Citi has already taken $25 billion of that. The rest will be used to guarantee troubled assets on Citi's books. We the taxpayers now own 7.8% of Citigroup.

The rescue comes just after several foreign investors pumped money into Citi. Those investors may have had some pretty good luck, as the government backstop includes support from the Treasury and FDIC in case Citi sees extensive losses.

Further reading:

• Mortgage Crisis Causes

Some banks offer especially high returns on savings and CDs. Is this unfair, immoral, or insane?

Competitors claim that small banks are snatching up deposits by offering the highest rates. This helps keep them afloat, but other banks have a hard time keeping assets on the books - a dangerous thing in today's world.

The Bankdeals blog recently covered the topic, and an interesting discussion follows. While banking executives call high-yield savings rates "insane", an astute commenter retorts:

"The insane interest rates are the interest rates that banks charge on their credit card balances."

The discussion also gets into how FDIC insurance puts a safety net under banks fighting for deposits. If things go wrong, the insurance fund steps in - so people are more likely to chase rates at less established institutions.

Do you think it's unfair to offer annual percentage yields (APY) substantially higher than the competition? Tell us about it in the comments.

Further reading:

• Highest Savings Account Interest Rates
• How FDIC Insurance Works

I recently heard of somebody falling for an email scam. Even though you've heard it a hundred times, email scams can catch you off guard. When you're busy and trying to get things checked off your list, you might not take the time to evaluate whether or not a message is legit. Even educated adults fall for the scam. If you ever sell anything using the internet, remember to watch for red flags, including:

• Cashier's checks (without time to wait for them to clear)
• Checks written for more than the purchase price
• Requests to send money to 'associates', 'movers', or 'partners' before your payment clears

Most of the time these ingredients appear together, it's an email scam. If you fall for the email scam, expect to hear from the scammers again via email, phone, and more - they'll try to get even more out of you for years to come.

Further reading:

• How to Spot Cashier's Check Fraud

Mint, the personal finance aggregator, just made an upgrade. They've added an SMS feature you can use to check your account balances quickly and easily from your mobile phone.

By texting "Bal" to "MyMint", you can get a real time balance on all of your Mint-linked accounts. They say this will allow you to dodge overdraft fees, and you can avoid going over the maximum limit on your credit cards.

I don't use Mint but I know it's popular. If you're using the service, please share your experiences in the comments below. This sounds like a neat feature, coming at a time when it's extremely important to watch your account balances.

Further reading:

• Avoid overdrafts by balancing your checkbook
• Debit Cards: Should you choose debit or credit?
• How Overdraft Protection Plans Work

The FDIC and Treasury bosses battled today over how bailout funds should be deployed.

FDIC chief Sheila Bair proposes that part of the $700 billion be used to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. She suggests that mortgage help would strike at the root of the financial crisis and help bring us out.

Secretary Henry Paulson disagrees, and plans to use the money to inject capital into troubled banks. He believes that we'll muddle our way out of this once the banks start making affordable loans available to a wider population.

Paulson will spend half of the $700 billion, and leave the rest for the Obama administration to manage.

Further reading:

• Mortgage Help Programs try to Attack Crisis
• Mortgage Crisis Causes
• What is Loan Modification?

As the mortgage crisis evolves, banks are cutting jobs:

• Citi cuts 50,000
• JP Morgan mulls layoffs
• Fidelity lays of 3000

Whether you love the financial institutions or you hate them, it is sad to see people finding themselves without a job in a difficult economy. For some people, a layoff may bring some good change into their lives. Others will just have a harder time paying the bills.

Have you ever been affected by a layoff, and was it a good or a bad thing for you? Tell us about it in the comments.

Further reading:

• Mortgage Crisis Causes
• What to Do When You're Downsized

The phone rings. They tell you that your bank has merged (or it's another bank failure) and they need your account information. Is it legit?

Of course not. However, it's easy to be fooled. Sophisticated scammers can sound very professional, and if you're busy you won't even pause to suspect something's wrong.

The FTC warns that a "bank merging" scam has become popular among criminals, so you're more likely to get this phone call. It's a form of vishing scam using old-school technology - the phone. To find out more and to get ideas on how you should react, see what our ID Theft expert says: Is Your Bank Really Merging?

Further reading:

• Vishing Scams Dial for Your Dollars
• How to Detect Phishing Scams

How much activity is there in peer to peer lending?

A lot. Why not look at the numbers. P2P-Banking.com recently published total loan history for the major peer to peer lending providers. The top 3 in total loans made are based in the USA, but other countries are active as well.

Virginmoney leads the pack having made $370 MM in loans. Prosper.com did almost half as much (Prosper.com temporarily stopped making new loans). Interestingly, the third place lender is a microfinance site that serves a different function than the major peer to peer lenders. Kiva.org is designed to help you lend to very small businesses in developing economies.

[via NetBanker]

Further reading:

• Peer to Peer Lending Overview
• How Kiva.org Does Microloans