By Sharon Epperson, CNBC personal finance correspondent

Giving a gift to charity may be your greatest gift of the season — and it doesn't even have to lighten your wallet. When it comes to charitable giving, I follow my father's wisdom. He always said charity should follow the "three T's" — giving of your time, your talent and your treasure. Here are some ways to do just that:

Share your bounty by volunteering your time
Of all the festivities associated with the winter holidays, many people look forward most to a big holiday meal. There's probably a food bank in your community that could greatly use your time to help prepare and serve food over the coming weeks. FeedingAmerica.org can help you find a food bank in your neighborhood.

Offer your professional expertise "pro bono"
Calling all doctors, lawyers, accountants, nutritionists, teachers! No matter your profession, if you have an expertise, volunteer your talent for a good cause. The website, idealist.org, is a great place to find volunteer opportunities to share your experience.

A treasure worth giving doesn't have to be a cash gift
You can donate appreciated stock and mutual funds. You can even donate airline miles or credit card reward points you've already earned.

Claim a tax break for charitable gift
If you do give something from your bank account, it can also give a little back to you in the form of a tax deduction. Check the IRS website to find out if the charity you are thinking of donating to is a tax-exempt organization, to make sure your gift will qualify for a tax deduction. Generally, to deduct a donation, you must itemize your deductions. Once you make the donation, keep a record. For contributions of $250 or more, you'll need written acknowledgment from the charity. Make your pledge before the end of the year for the donation to count for 2012.

Research the charity before giving
Non-profit organizations may use their moneyin a variety of ways. Guidestar.org and Charity Navigator.org rate charities based on several factors, including the organization's financial health and efficiency. You can find out how much of the money goes to the organization's stated cause versus overhead, fundraising, and other costs. Maximize your gift's impact by taking the time to find how the charity gets and spends its money. You want to ensure that your gift is used in the way that you intended.

More from CNBC:
Taxing Charitable Donations?  Then Tax Volunteers
Don’t Get Rid of the Charitable Deduction
Are the Brits Less Charitable Than Americans?
Charity is Charity, Tax-Wise

Peter Dazeley / Getty Images file

Consumers need to be careful how they use, and don't use, their credit cards to avoid doing harm to their credit scores, experts say.

My husband and I recently refinanced our mortgage, and the bank sent us our credit scores during the process. Both scores were good, but my husband’s was 30 points higher than mine. This puzzled me, because we share the same spending and bill-payment practices. To find out why my score was lower — and to get a better understanding of credit scores — I decided to talk to some experts. I learned four lessons that I think you’ll want to know.

First, a brief refresher on what a credit score is: It’s an algorithm designed to predict your likelihood of repaying debt  Lenders use your score to determine whether to approve you for loans and credit cards and at what interest rates. Insurers use credit scores to set premium rates, and employers use them when making hiring decisions.

Forbes.com: 10 ways a bad credit score can hurt you

Your credit score is based on your credit report, which is a record of your borrowing and repayment history, typically compiled by one of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian or TransUnion. (You can get your credit report — not your credit score — free at annualcreditreport.com.  But watch out for sites offering phony “free” scores, as another Next Avenue article explains.)

Here are the four lessons I learned that could help you improve your credit score:

Lesson 1

Don’t sign up for new credit cards you don’t need — even if you’re offered attractive deals for doing so. This mistake, it turns out, probably cost me several points on my credit score.

Forbes.com: The 10 worst U.S. cities for travel taxes

Shortly before I refinanced my mortgage, a retail clerk persuaded me to open a store credit card to save $40 on a purchase. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But, as I’ve since learned, opening a new line of credit negatively affects your score at first because you have no history with the new creditor. At the same time, a new account lowers the average age of all your credit accounts, which also dings your score. And closing the account quickly won’t help.

“Be strategic in deciding which credit card offers to accept,” said Gerri Detweiler, director of consumer education for Credit.com. “Only sign up for them if you’ll really save money over time.” For example, if the department store’s card has an interest rate that’s much lower than the rate on the card you’d otherwise use, you might want to consider it despite the impact it will have on your score.

Lesson 2

Make sure all your medical bills have been paid, either by you or your health insurer (or both of you). “It’s very easy for a payment to fall through the cracks and end up in collections,” said Detweiler. A 2003 Federal Reserve study found that more than half of all collection accounts noted on credit reports involve unpaid medical bills. “This is a huge problem,” Detweiler said.

Forbes.com: 10 top credit card choices from college to retirement

It could be that you assumed that your health insurer paid a bill when it didn’t. Or perhaps you thought you received all the bills for a recent surgery, but the anesthesiologist’s went to the wrong address. With that in mind, go through all your medical bills periodically to double-check that none is outstanding.

Lesson 3

You won’t have a good credit score if you don’t have any credit cards or loans. This is the downside to becoming debt-free just before you retire.

Forbes.com: Top credit cards for balance transfers

Here’s how Anthony A. Sprauve, public relations director of FICO — the most widely known credit scoring firm — explained it: “Some people may move to a cash-only existence when they retire. This can result in a ‘thin’ credit file, which could make getting new credit tough if they find they need it — to replace an aging car, for example, or downsize to a smaller home.”

So even if you don’t need credit now and don’t think you will anytime soon, consider keeping a couple of credit lines open and use them wisely. Using the card occasionally and paying it off in full won’t lower your score. But if you never use a credit card, sooner or later the issuer will cancel it.

Lesson 4

Think twice before closing credit card accounts and credit lines just because you don’t use them. Closing them may reduce your credit history and the total available credit on your credit reports, which in turn could lower your score.

Forbes.com: Best credit cards for hotel rewards

By the way, closing an account because you had a bad payment history won’t make that black mark disappear from your credit report — it will continue to appear for seven years. But take heart: The negative impact lessens over time. If you’ve been late on payments, bring them up to date as soon as you can. The longer you wait, the more your credit score will be nicked.

Today Money financial expert Sharon Epperson joined us for a live Web chat Wednesday to answer your questions.

Here’s one of her answers to questions from the live chat. (See below for the full Q&A and video of Sharon’s TV appearance this morning.)

Darla asked:

“Hi Sharon. Me and my husband would like to downsize on our home, but our credit isn't good so we probably aren't in a position to purchase another home. We'd like to get something less expensive but see no way out. Any advice you can provide? Thanks!”

Sharon replied:

“Why don't you rent? Take the headache of home ownership (lawn care, home repairs and unexpected emergencies) off the table and focus on rebuilding your credit and building your savings.”

Here’s the full chat archive and Sharon’s TV appearance:

If you have a question for our TODAY Money experts, submit it here.

To sign up for an e-mail reminder for our next chat, click here.

Over the next few weeks, high school students across the country will be taking a voluntary exam designed to test their financial smarts.

The 2011 National Financial Capability Challenge is designed to make sure kids are heading out into the real world with a basic understanding of things like interest rates, insurance terms and taxes.

Hey, maybe those crazy kids will even prevent the next financial crisis.

Reuters blogger Lara Pingue got a sneak peek at some of the questions facing the teens, and decided to see how well her adult readers would fare.

Wondering how you stack up? Click here to take the test. 

Instead of looking to traditional institutions or check-cashing stores, millions of low-income Americans are instead turning to their local big-box retailer for their banking needs, according to a report in The Washington Post.

The newspaper reports that Kmart, Best Buy and Wal-Mart are all testing and rolling out in-store banking services ranging from check cashing and money transfers to bill-payment services.

The attraction for these retailers is the $320 billion industry of alternative financial services that the newspaper report says has long operated in the shadow of the formal banking system and under the radar of federal regulators.

Demand for alternative services is expected to grow as strict new rules force banks to charge higher fees for checking accounts, placing them out of reach of many financially strapped households, the Post notes.

The article cites a recent government survey that shows nearly 30 million households either do not have a bank account or scarcely use one. Some 70 percent of families who are considered “unbanked” earn less than $30,000 a year and many say they will never do business at a bank, the paper said.

These households have usually used a hodgepodge of services to manage their money, and retailers have started to realize that those same consumers are shopping in their stores, the Post said (Wal-Mart, for example, has said that one in five of its customers doesn’t have a checking account).