Rise up all you frugalists and be heard! Now is your time to finally enjoy some bragging rights. While your friends bought multiple homes, boats, cars, and racked up some serious credit card debt to keep up with the latest trends, you quietly lived within your means and saved up a pile of cash for troubled times. It may not have been easy at first, but after awhile you found it became a natural part of your everyday life.

American Express won't share the juicy details behind how it chose the select few, but Reuters recently reported that the credit card giant is actually offering some U.S. cardholders $300 to pay off balances and close their accounts. My, how things have changed, eh? A short time ago credit issuers were stepping all over each other trying to become the card of choice in everyone's wallet, and now they're willing to pay cash to just get out before the economy gets any worse.

Unless Experian and Fair Isaac can figure out a way to reignite the fire in their marriage before Valentine's Day, we will no longer have the ability to access FICO scores based on Experian data. Creditnet.com received notice last week that Experian sent a termination letter to Fair Isaac in mid January that will apparently end the rocky relationship between the credit bureau and the developer of the 800-pound gorilla of credit scores. Equifax and TransUnion FICO scores will still be available at www.myfico.com; however, Experian FICO scores will no longer be accessible from myFICO or anywhere else for that matter.

Not only has the credit crunch made it more difficult to obtain practically all types of credit, but Fair Isaac, developer of the well-known FICO score, has also announced the biggest change to their credit scoring model since 1989. So, prepare yourself now, because it will be more important than ever in 2009 to understand how everyday financial decisions will affect your credit score.