When a woman received a letter from a debt collecting agency for an $8.97 debt, she began to wonder if it would hurt her credit score. She explains, “Today I received a letter in the mail from a collection agency stating that a DVD I rented from Family Video (probably 5 years ago) has gone to collections. The total that I owe is $8.97. Am I going to get a bad credit score for an unpaid bill of $8.97?! Help would be greatly appreciated — Jillian”

Citigroup, the fourth-largest credit-card lender by purchase volume in the U.S., is partnering with Fair Isaac Co., the provider of the credit score most widely used by lenders, to provide its customers with their FICO Score beginning in January.

Did you get a parking ticket in another state or what about a speeding ticket or other citation?

If you haven’t started playing the FICO game yet, here are 10 little-known credit cheats that will help you get to the next credit level. There’s one score that follows you around for life — your credit score!

When an individual gets into a serious accident or incurs a large sum of medical bills from an illness, it can be hard to repay the debts before the hospital turns the debts over to a collection agency. Once the debts are at a collection agency, they are placed as line items on that individual’s credit report.