Answer: Plenty of lenders don’t report to credit bureaus. Even some credit unions, which are normally consumer-friendly, opt to report to only one credit bureau.

If you’re trying to rehabilitate battered credit scores, you want accounts to be reported to all three bureaus so that all three of your FICO credit scores (one from each bureau) can benefit. It doesn’t do your scores any good if a loan you’re paying on time isn’t reported to any bureau, and it does you only limited good if it’s reported to just one bureau because your other two scores won’t benefit.

You typically can find out simply by asking before you apply for a loan whether the creditor reports to all three bureaus.

The fastest way to improve your scores is to have both installment and revolving accounts. Revolving accounts include credit cards, but you don’t necessarily need to borrow money to improve your scores. Using a credit card and paying it in full each month also can help. If you don’t have a card, consider applying for a secured version, which gives you a credit limit equal to an amount you deposit with the issuing bank. But again, make sure the issuer reports the account to all three bureaus before you apply. You can find secured-card offers at LowCards.com, CardRatings.com, CreditCards.com and other sites.

Answer: Federal law prohibits employers from using a bankruptcy filing as a reason not to hire (or to fire or decline to promote) someone. However, most states allow employers to check credit reports, and employers are allowed to use the negative marks they find there as a reason to not hire someone. Since most people who file for bankruptcy have plenty of late payments and charge-offs leading up to the filing, that gives employers the legal cover they need to refuse to hire someone with a checkered financial past.

Interestingly, there’s no research or other evidence that indicates bad credit leads to problems on the job, such as theft or even poor performance. Yet employers continue to use credit checks to screen out job applicants for a wide variety of jobs.

Only six states — California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon and Washington — restrict employers’ ability to check credit reports, and often there are exceptions for jobs in finance or those that involve access to large amounts of cash.

Unfortunately, that means your daughter’s troubled financial past may continue to haunt her for years to come unless she finds an employer willing to overlook it. Most negative marks stay on credit reports for seven years, while bankruptcies can stay on for up to 10 years.

Answer: Talk to a housing counselor approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development about your situation, including the rental property. (You can get a referral to this free or low-cost help at http://www.hud.gov.)

You don’t need the financial drag of this property adding to your woes. Ideally you’d be able to slash the price for a quick sale, or if you owe more than the property is worth, to arrange for a short sale. That’s when the lender agrees to accept the proceeds of the sale in lieu of the larger amount you owe. Otherwise, you may need to let the property go into foreclosure.

You may not be able to save your primary residence either. If you don’t have any income, you’re unlikely to get a refinance or a modification, but the HUD counselor can apprise you of your options. If you have any equity in the property, it probably makes sense to sell it while you can rather than let the bank take over and lose a small fortune in foreclosure-related fees. For more information, read attorney Stephen Elias’ book, “The Foreclosure Survival Guide.”

Answer: No. Your credit reports and credit scores aren’t combined when you marry.

If you apply for a loan together, both of your credit histories and scores would be taken into account. His bad scores could prevent you from getting approved. If you did get approved, you would probably have to pay a much higher interest rate.

If you do plan to get a mortgage or other loan together down the road, he should start to rehabilitate his scores as soon as his home situation is resolved. He should expect his scores to remain in the poor-to-fair category for at least three years, and it may take as many as seven years to get them into the “excellent” range.

Answer: Unfortunately, your experience is all too common — and too often people waiting for an answer from their lender wind up losing their homes to foreclosure. Lenders’ poorly trained and poorly staffed loan modification departments have created endless nightmares for homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure.

You should immediately enlist the help of a counselor approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. You can get referrals from http://www.hud.gov or by calling (800) 569-4287. The advice is free or low-cost. A counselor can help assess your situation, offer alternatives and guide you through the modification process — if a modification is still an option.

You also should read attorney Stephen Elias’ excellent book “The Foreclosure Survival Guide: Keep Your House or Walk Away With Money in Your Pocket.”

What you shouldn’t do is expect the lender to do the “right” thing, including honoring any promises or commitments made to you. The people who get loan modifications have to be tenacious, persistent and savvy about the process.

Answer: Widows and widowers are often advised not to make any big decisions in the first year of their bereavement. Unfortunately, bill collectors aren’t willing to wait that long.

You need to determine your liability for your late husband’s debts. Don’t rely on what collection agents tell you. They may insist you have a legal or moral obligation to pay a bill when you don’t. An experienced probate or bankruptcy attorney can help you sort through the debts to see which ones need to be paid from your husband’s estate, which you may be responsible for and which can go unpaid. Student loan obligations, for example, typically end at death unless you or someone else co-signed the loans.

You also need to make sure you get all the money and property to which you’re entitled. You and your children may qualify for Social Security survivor benefits. (You can find out more at http://www.ssa.gov.) You also may inherit retirement funds and life insurance policies that are protected from creditors. Life insurance policies that name you as a beneficiary, for instance, pass outside your husband’s estate and don’t have to be shared with creditors — again, regardless of what collection agencies may tell you.

Once you’ve sorted out his estate, you can begin rebuilding your financial life for yourself and your children. A fee-only planner can help you get started. You can get referrals from the Garrett Planning Network at http://www.garrettplanningnetwork.com, which represents planners who charge by the hour, or the National Assn. of Personal Financial Advisors at http://www.napfa.org, which represents planners who charge retainer fees or a percentage of assets they manage for you.

Answer: Your options are pretty simple. You can continue to bail him out. Or you can stop.

A longtime spendthrift is unlikely to change his behavior. That’s particularly true if he still has people around him willing to give him money, but he may not change even if your entire family cuts him off.

Understanding that you don’t have the power to change your brother is an important, but difficult, first step. You may want to seek help from a counselor or a 12-step group that helps people deal with problem relationships. Since bar hopping is such a big part of his life, you (and your mother) may benefit from attending Al-Anon, the 12-step group for people who have alcoholics in their lives. You can find more information at http://www.al-anon.alateen.org. Another similar group is Codependents Anonymous (information at http://www.coda.org), which aims to help people develop healthier relationships.

Answer: There is. Bankruptcies have to be removed from your credit reports after 10 years.

Individual lenders, though, are allowed to have much longer memories. And some have opted not to forget. If you ever file a bankruptcy that wipes out debt on one of the accounts they issue, they may never again approve you for credit. That’s perfectly legal.

Not all lenders are so unforgiving, of course, and those who don’t know about your bankruptcy likely will be perfectly willing to extend you credit as long as your credit scores are good. But you’re probably wasting your time trying to induce this once-spurned lender to change its mind.

Answer: Adding an installment loan such as an auto loan, mortgage or student loan to your credit mix can indeed help rehabilitate troubled scores. But it’s advisable only if you’re well on your way to having the rest of your debt paid off. Otherwise, you risk stalling on your debt repayment or — worst-case scenario — adding another bad debt to the pile.

If your scores are still troubled, the car loan probably has sky-high interest rates. If you go this route, put down at least 20% of the purchase price so that you can refinance to more favorable terms in a year or two when your scores improve.

A better option may be to skip the car loan and try to get a three-year personal loan from your credit union. This fixed-rate loan would allow you to pay off some of your other debt while improving your scores.

Once your debt is paid off, you can save up to either buy your next car with cash or at least make a substantial down payment so you have to finance only a portion of the purchase.

Finally, you should know that although using and paying off your credit card is definitely helping your scores, paying off old debts may not be so helpful to your numbers. If the bills are already in collections, you may not see dramatic improvements in your scores as you retire those debts. That’s why you would be smart to look for other means to improve your scores.

Answer: Eliminating such a small loan is unlikely to have a big effect on the size of the mortgage you’ll get, so you’re probably better off boosting your savings for your down payment. Don’t forget to save a bit extra so you have enough cash to cover closing costs and the inevitable repairs and maintenance required with homeownership.