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You don't have to give your SSN to businesses that request it, although they do have
right to refuse service. Only government agency, and employment or tax related inquiries must be answered.
Reduce
number of pre-approved offers you get by requesting these credit bureaus remove your name from their lists: TRW (800) 353-0809, Equifax (800) 219-1251 and TransUnion (800) 241-2858.
Once a year carefully check out your free credit report from Experian (800) 682-7654 and free Social Security file (800) 772-1213. If you are denied credit based on your report,
issuing credit bureau must provide you with a free copy upon request - even if they usually charge for it.
Do not give out confidential information on e-mail or do financial transactions on
Internet unless it's secure and encoded. (Look for
SSL reference)
Check guarantee and check verification agencies must provide
same protection as credit bureaus, such as access to your report and correction of errors. If your check is refused, get
agency name.
For assistance in re-establishing good credit and correcting errors,
non-profit Consumer Credit Counseling Service may be able to help you. To find
office nearest you call (800) 388-2227. You can check out more free time-saving tips at http://www.organize.com

For over 15 years, Eve Abbott has been writing, speaking and consulting with executives, managers and business owners on boosting their day-to-day effectiveness with organizing tools and techniques to melt the paper blizzard and tackle e-mail overload. Eve is the Organizer Extraordinaire, a personal productivity expert whose wisdom has reached the pages of the New York Times, Working Woman and Home Office Computing.