Protect yourself against identity theftWritten by Jeremy Zongker
Protect yourself against identity theft Identity theft is when someone uses, without permission, your personal information in order to commit any frauds or crimes. Identity theft is a felony that is becoming more and more common. That is because some of us are not very careful with personal information, making job easier for those trying to steel our identity. We should always be careful with information like Social Security number, credit card number, birth date, employment information, driver's license number, etc., because if they enter into wrong hands consequences can be very serious. People that have experienced identity theft spend months trying to repair what others have damaged, and in meantime they cannot get a loan or lose a job opportunity or, sometimes, they can get arrested for something they didn't do. If you have slightest suspicion that someone has gained access to your personal information, acting quickly is a must. First of all, you should get in touch with fraud department of credit bureau where you have your accounts and request them to initiate a credit alert on your accounts. This way creditors are obligated to contact you before taking any actions regarding your accounts. At same time you should close accounts you believe that are corrupted. The second step would be filing a police report and keeping a copy of it so to have a proof of crime. It is difficult dealing with an identity theft and most of all is difficult to repair what others have messed up for you. We cannot completely prevent identity theft, but we can take some simple precautions to minimize risks. The most important thing to do is to pay attention to your bank statements: they should arrive in time and you should check them very carefully. Your bank statement should always arrive almost at same date every month. If you don't get your statement one month this could mean that someone has changed your billing address to prevent you from discovering any unauthorized activity in your account. Also, you must check every statement as you get it and be sure that you have made all purchases recorded on it.
| | Debt Consolidation -- Choose Your Credit Counselor CarefullyWritten by Charles Essmeier
Recently passed by Congress, Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 will require people who are filing for bankruptcy to first undergo mandatory credit counseling.
This is probably not a bad idea; after all, many people with problem debt could probably benefit from credit counseling. A good credit counselor can assist clients with problem debts in establishing a repayment schedule, creating a personal budget, and learning how to avoid debt and credit problems in future.
The problem is that with estimated one and a half million additional people seeking credit counseling each year, there will undoubtedly be more credit "counselors" entering market, and many of them are only interested in reaping huge profits at expense of their clients. There are already a number of credit counseling firms working in marketplace that advertise themselves as "nonprofit", when they actually are closely tied to for-profit debt consolidation firms. These agencies will strongly encourage their clients to consolidate debt through their partner company, and result may be a long-term loan for client that doesn't help them at all, but reaps huge profits for consolidation firm. How can someone who is genuinely seeking legitimate, helpful credit counseling choose a counseling agency wisely?
*Counselors should listen. If they start pitching a solution to you during first fifteen minutes you are there, you should be suspicious. A credit counselor should be gathering information about you in order to determine how best to help you. They can’t possibly know how to help if they don’t understand your problem. Unless, of course, they don’t care about your problem and only want to sell generic “solutions.”
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