If you're a member of a minority group, your family's financial future today could remain subject to substantially greater risk than the majority of the population.

One major reason, some charge, may be a number of unfair sales practices by financial services personnel. So it is important to educate yourself and your family to spot these practices.

"The most glaring is credit scoring -- particularly in the area of insurance and utilities," declares Birny Birnbaum, executive director of the Center for Economic Justice, Austin, Texas. "If you don't have any credit information or give very little information, that can be worse than if you had a bankruptcy in terms of your credit score."

Yet, a low credit score can mean that you'll pay a higher security deposit for utilities, higher premium payments for insurance and higher rates on loans. Meanwhile, if you live in a poor area, you're often forced to rely on payday lenders, check cashing operations and rent-to-own companies rather than banks. Even though you may religiously pay exorbitantly high-rate loans to these companies, typically they don't report payments to the credit bureaus, he says.

Minorities also are at greater risk of paying for credit insurance they don't need. Although federal laws largely have stopped lenders from automatically adding credit insurance charges to mortgage balances, the practice continues on auto loans, Birnbaum said.

Other practices for minority families to watch for:

Higher car loan rates than necessary. A GMAC survey has indicated that blacks pay an average of $1,229 over the life of the car loan compared with $867 paid by whites.

Minority consumers are vulnerable to the risks of adjustable-rate mortgages, which have rates that can rise -- leading to greater debt. Reason: More lenders, says the Consumer Federation of America, are aggressively marketing adjustable-rate mortgages to people with low credit scores without carefully explaining how they work. As a result, "37 percent of Hispanics and 31 percent of African-Americans, but only 23 percent of whites, prefer ARMs," CFA said.

American Indians, Alaska Natives, African-Americans and Hispanics are more likely to be victims of fraud than non-Hispanic whites, warns the Federal Trade Commission. The top four categories of fraud relate to credit and target persons with high debt loads.

So what can you do about all this?

Ask your insurance company and utility if they're examining your credit history. If so, determine if its use has caused you to pay a higher utility deposit or insurance premium. If it has, ask the insurer to explain why, and obtain a free copy of your credit report to find out if you were treated fairly. Complain to your insurance commissioner and state and federal legislators about credit scoring.

Say "no" to credit life and other unnecessary insurance policies in conjunction with loans and credit lines.

Before heading to a car dealership, get a copy of your credit report. Make certain that errors and omitted information are corrected. Determine what type of car you will buy, and check out www.kbb.com and www.edmunds.com for information on price ranges you can expect. Check out the nation's average car loan rate at www.bankrate.com. Shop car loan rates at banks, credit unions and other lenders. Always ask a dealer if the car model you're considering has any special financing offers or rebates.

Before purchasing an adjustable-rate mortgage, analyze what impact rising mortgage rates will have on your ability to pay. Find out what your monthly payment will be in the worst-case-scenario -- if interest rates hit the ARM's lifetime cap. Don't forget to add escrowed charges and homeowners or condo association fees to your monthly payment.

Do not pay upfront fees for credit services.