Happy New Year!  As we head into 2012, we thought it helpful to provide a list of all the best things to take advantage of, from diets and recipes to credit cards and colleges.  Enjoy!

1. Best Credit Card Offers: Kathy Kristoff, an award-winning financial journalist and the author of Investing 101,offers her list at CBSNews.com.1
2. Best Diets for 2012:  Jeannine Stein of the Los Angeles Times gives us the skinny on the best diets.
3. Best New Cars for 2012:  Popular Mechanics’ Michael Frank gives a sneek peak at the 12 best autos.
4. Best Trips for 2012:  National Geographic has a wide range of suggestions – from Thailand to Pittsburgh – that’s right, Pittsburgh! 
5. Best Colleges for 2012: Ryan Lytle of U.S. News lists the best of the best in colleges for 2012. 
6. Best Computer Antivirus: Neil J. Rubenking, Lead Analyst for Security at PC Magazine lets us know how to have a clean running PC this year.
7. Best Online Banks for Savings Accounts:  Doughroller explains where to stash our cash!   
8. Best New Beauty Products for 2012:  BellaSugar tells us how to look sweet in 2012  showcasing the best beauty products this year.
9. Best Dessert Recipes for 2012:  Reeni Spice of CinnamonSpiceandEverythingNice.com tells us how to sweeten it up and spice it up in the kitchen.
10. America’s Top 10 Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants
11. Best Values in Public Colleges:  Who better than Kiplinger to tell us where to find  value in higher education? 
12. Best Ways to Save in 2012: As you spend your time in 2012, The Skinny Scoop gives us best ways to save.

So for 2012 – our best to you from FreeScore.com.  And remember, a penny saved could be a credit point earned!

Share some of your bests in the comments below!

First, we are posting our weekly roundup a day early this week as many of you may be cramming in last-minute shopping before Christmas Day.

While last-minute shopping is on your mind, here are a couple of highlighted posts to help avoid credit score surprises when the shopping spree ends.

Martha C. White of Time Magazine wrote about the 5 Things That — Surprisingly — Don’t Hurt Your Credit Score. Martha points out that

1. How much money you make,
2. Whether or not you have a job,
3. Whether or not you revolve a balance,
4. Whether or not your home is underwater, and
5. How much money you have in the bank do not determine your scores.

Next, Credit Karma posted on LearnVest.com that there are 10 surprising things that hurt your credit scores. What are they?

1. Renting a Car with a Debit Card
2. Requesting a Credit Limit Increase
3. Applying for an Account at a Credit Union
4. Getting a New Cell Phone
5. Using a Business Credit Card
6. Not Using Your Credit Cards
7. Disputing a Credit Card Bill
8. Using a Finance Plan for a Major Purchase
9. Closing an Old Credit Card Account, and
10. Sitting on Unpaid Parking Tickets.

Consumer expert, Clark Howard, noted that “Credit scores remained remarkably constant during the recession.” So, the economy won’t affect your scores, but your actions will.

So, while you are shopping this weekend, don’t surprise yourself by signing up for store credit cards for a discount. As we have reported, through credit score simulations we found that opening a new credit card with a $2,500 limit can lower credit scores by as much as -52 points.

Use your credit wisely as your shop these next few weeks. And, before you venture out, you can go to FreeScore.com to our Credit Score Predictor℠ and see if your scores may be affected by the actions you take.

Happy shopping and Happy Holidays!

Check out our weekly roundup, focusing on some serious, funny and outrageous stuff in the credit space.

Serious Stuff:

Facebook Friends Can Be Credit Score Enemies:  Adrienne Jeffries of The New York Observer wrote that “a new wave of start-ups is working on algorithms gathering data for banks from the web of associations on the internet known as ‘the social graph,’ in which people are “nodes” connected to each other by ‘edges.’”

The bottom line is that lenders may look at who you know as an influence on you and your credit scores.  Seems we may all be facing up to Facebook.

Follow her @adrjeffries

Funniest Credit Score Tweet of the Week:

It’s funny my credit score, my blood alcohol content & high school GPA are all the same number (1.2)  comedian Ron White. Check him out here @Ron_White

Outrageous Charges:

Cassandra Hubbart of AOL Daily Finance finds 10 outrageous credit card charges – including this in her post: “But some receipts merit a double-take because of the sheer outrageousness of their totals, or the bizarre nature of the expense ($2 for a “farting charge?”).”  Now that really stinks! Follow @Daily_Finance!

Coming up on the holidays, make sure you check your receipts and credit scores too – avoid outrageous changes and mistakes on your credit reports.