Your Money: Mar. 22, 1999

BACK IN BUSINESS Some small-cap mutual funds that closed their doors when a surfeit of money made them hard to manage are open again--if you're game. Last week Fidelity said its Small Cap Stock and Low-Priced Stock funds will accept new investors, mostly because shareholders have been fleeing. Low-Priced's assets dropped from $12 billion to $7.8 billion in the past year. Small-cap stocks were hammered in general, making them something of a bargain.

CLAIM THAT KID Wouldn't you know it--even when the IRS tries to do something right, something goes wrong. The agency is offering a new, $400-per-child tax credit this year, but thanks to its notoriously complicated paperwork, thousands of eligible taxpayers are failing to take advantage of it. (If you earn more than $75,000, or $110,000 for a joint return, you don't qualify for the full break.) The friendly IRS folks highlighted the problem last week. People check the right box on the 1040 form (column 4 of line 6c), but many forget to enter the $400 on line 43.

NO EXTRA CREDIT If you're taking out a loan or buying a car, you might as well shell out a few extra bucks for credit insurance, which covers your debts in case of an accident or loss of job, right? Wrong. That, at least, was the conclusion of a Consumers Union report out last week, which said that credit insurance, judging by the ratio of benefits paid out to the cost of premiums, is largely a rip-off, bilking customers out of $2 billion a year. Many life- and homeowner's-insurance policies provide the same level of coverage, so put your wallet away.

--By Daniel Eisenberg and Kathleen Adams