Joshua Heckathorn

YES! Unpaid medical debts can most definitely hurt your credit scores. Paying your medical bills on time and in full, however, will do nothing to improve them. Doesn't sound fair to the consumer now, does it? Well, it isn't, and lawmakers have even looked at legislation in the past which was written with the intention to wipe consumers' credit reports clean of "paid" medical debts that were delinquent at one point in time. The bill unfortunately never passed the House, so the issue remains unresolved.

Every so often an old credit myth I haven't heard in awhile will pop up again during a conversation with some friends. This past weekend it happened during a chat with a colleague about unemployment and its effect, or lack thereof, on FICO scores. Contrary to what many people think, you can be unemployed for a long period of time and still maintain excellent credit scores. The truth is the FICO credit-scoring model doesn't consider your employment history in any way, shape, or form. Like the level of your income, it's a complete non-factor.

Dear Creditnet: My credit scores are in bad shape and I've been researching ways to start rebuilding my credit so I can eventually get an auto loan at a decent interest rate. It turns out that the credit union I use offers a "credit builder loan" that is supposed to help my credit scores. How does a credit builder loan work, and will it actually improve my FICO scores? It kind of seems like a scam to me because the interest rate is pretty high, but I've used this credit union for a long time and have always been happy with their products and customer service. - Justin T. from MA