Thanks to my job as a Fool writer, I receive lots of email. I hear from disgruntled readers and, well, gruntled ones. I also receive lots of press releases, many of them of little interest. But sometimes, word of useful services makes its way through the pile of messages. It happened just recently, in fact.

The nice folks at CreditCardClients.com told me about a "Savings Agent." Here's what they said about it:

The Savings Agent is a free, invaluable tool that helps consumers choose the most appropriate and cost-effective credit card according to their personal credit profile to ultimately help them get out of credit card debt. It takes all of the effort out of comparing and contrasting credit card offers and can be used start to finish in less than 5 minutes.

They also shared some findings, based on data from people who used the service to find cards that better suit their debt

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp on Wednesday received a $2 billion injection from Bank of America Corp, helping the largest U.S. mortgage lender shore up its finances as it struggles with a liquidity crunch.

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank, said it bought non-voting preferred stock that yields 7.25 percent and can be converted into Countrywide common stock at $18 per share, 17.5 percent below the shares' Wednesday closing price. Countrywide shares soared 20 percent in after-hours trading.

"It's a $2 billion vote of confidence from a major financial institution," said Steve Persky, a portfolio manager at Dalton Investments in Los Angeles. "Are we out of the woods yet in the mortgage market? No."

Sean Egan, managing director of independent credit rating firm Egan-Jones Ratings Co, said the investment "is a large

The sell-off hurts. The S&P 500 was off about 7% from its July 19 intraday high through Monday's close.
That leaves the big-cap index up a scant 1.92% for the entire year.

So we're in a wrenching correction. The sparks for this conflagration are the credit crunch and fallout from the subprime meltdown.

Many investors have been wondering if they should bail out of the market -- before their accounts dwindle further. Should they go to cash?

The question is especially urgent for people near retirement.

The trouble with exiting is that the medicine is often worse than the ailment.

People don't get back into the market in time. As a result, they miss the start of the next rally. That means they lose a big chunk of gains.

"If you're getting hurt by this downturn, it means you weren't able to foresee the sell-off," said Stuart Ritter, a financial planner at T. Rowe Price. "What makes you