What started out as a quest to get more fundamental currency knowledge to better raise my financial IQ turned me into feeling cynical, played and hopeless.

Jon, you raise a very valuable point.

Raising your FICO score is like losing weight: It takes time and there is no quick fix.

Also it is pretty underutilized as I rarely find or talk to anyone who looks at it.I have used only post cards with modest success because this market is a bit like the foreclosure market; head in the sand, everything will be fine type of homeowners.

So, talk to some of your local banks and find out if they will do this.How about using credit cards or a personal loan to fund this deal?

Then I used credit cards to do some home improvements, hoping that the house will appreciate.

However, would be possible if I were to open a secured credit card by applying at a Wells Fargo with an initial deposit of say $5000 and after receiving the card in the mail, withdraw my initial $5000 deposit?

What exactly should I put on my buisness card?

So I pay for the cards and then I stick one of them in her shopping cart and say, "Thank you for being so nice."

Now he’s being forced to sell four apartments to raise cash for his family business in Moscow.