Be aware of credit fraud

Credit Repair: Self Help May Be Best

You see the advertisements in newspapers, on TV, and on the Internet. You hear them on the radio. You get fliers in the mail. You may even get calls from telemarketers offering credit repair services. They all make the same claims:

• “Credit problems? No problem!”
• “We can erase your bad credit — 100% guaranteed.”
• “Create a new credit identity — legally.”
• “We can remove bankruptcies, judgments, liens, and bad loans from your credit file forever!”

Do yourself a favor and save some money, too. Don’t believe these statements. Only time, a conscious effort, and a personal debt repayment plan will improve your credit report.
This brochure explains how you can improve your creditworthiness and gives legitimate resources for low or no-cost help.

The Scam

Everyday, companies nationwide appeal to consumers with poor credit histories. They promise, for a fee, to clean up your credit report so you can get a car loan, a home mortgage, insurance, or even a job. The truth is, they can’t deliver. After you pay them hundreds or thousands of dollars in fees, these companies do nothing to improve your credit report; most simply vanish with your money.

The Warning Signs

If you decide to respond to a credit repair offer, look for these tell-tale signs of a scam:

• companies that want you to pay for credit repair services before they provide any services.
• companies that do not tell you your legal rights and what you can do for yourself for free.
• companies that recommend that you not contact a credit reporting company directly.
• companies that suggest that you try to invent a “new” credit identity — and then, a new credit report — by applying for an Employer Identification Number to use instead of your Social Security number.
• companies that advise you to dispute all information in your credit report or take any action that seems illegal, like creating a new credit identity. If you follow illegal advice and commit fraud, you may be subject to prosecution.

You could be charged and prosecuted for mail or wire fraud if you use the mail or telephone to apply for credit and provide false information. It’s a federal crime to lie on a loan or credit application, to misrepresent your Social Security number, and to obtain an Employer Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service under false pretenses.
Under the Credit Repair Organizations Act, credit repair companies cannot require you to pay until they have completed the services they have promised.

The Truth

No one can legally remove accurate and timely negative information from a credit report. The law allows you to ask for an investigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete. There is no charge for this. Everything a credit repair clinic can do for you legally, you can do for yourself at little or no cost. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA):

• You’re entitled to a free report if a company takes adverse action against you, like denying your application for credit, insurance, or employment, and you ask for your report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. The notice will give you the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting company. You’re also entitled to one free report a year if you’re unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days; if you’re on welfare; or if your report is inaccurate because of fraud, including identity theft.
• Each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — is required to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.
  The three companies have set up a central website, a toll-free telephone number, and a mailing address through which you can order your free annual report. To order, click on annualcreditreport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can print the form from ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ . Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually. They are providing free annual credit reports only through annualcreditreport.com, 1-877-322-8228, and Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or you can order your report from each of the companies one at a time. For more information, see Your Access to Free Credit Reports at ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ .
  Otherwise, a consumer reporting company may charge you up to $9.50 for another copy of your report within a 12-month period.
• You can dispute mistakes or outdated items for free. Under the FCRA, both the consumer reporting company and the information provider (that is, the person, company, or organization that provides information about you to a consumer reporting company) are responsible for correcting inaccurate or incomplete information in your report. To take advantage of all your rights under this law, contact the consumer reporting company and the information provider.

STEP ONE

Tell the consumer reporting company, in writing, what information you think is inaccurate. Include copies (NOT originals) of documents that support your position. In addition to providing your complete name and address, your letter should clearly identify each item in your report you dispute, state the facts and explain why you dispute the information, and request that it be removed or corrected. You may want to enclose a copy of your report with the items in question circled. Your letter may look something like the one on page 6. Send your letter by certified mail, “return receipt requested,” so you can document what the consumer reporting company received. Keep copies of your dispute letter and enclosures.

Consumer reporting companies must investigate the items in question — usually within 30 days — unless they consider your dispute frivolous. They also must forward all the relevant data you provide about the inaccuracy to the organization that provided the information. After the information provider receives notice of a dispute from the consumer reporting company, it must investigate, review the relevant information, and report the results back to the consumer reporting company. If the information provider finds the disputed information is inaccurate, it must notify all three nationwide consumer reporting companies so they can correct the information in your file.

When the investigation is complete, the consumer reporting company must give you the results in writing and a free copy of your report if the dispute results in a change. If an item is changed or deleted, the consumer reporting company cannot put the disputed information back in your file unless the information provider verifies that it is accurate and complete. The consumer reportincompany also must send you written notice that includes the name, address, and phone number of the information provider. If you request, the consumer reporting company must send notices of any correction to anyone who received your report in the past six months. You can have a corrected copy of your report sent to anyone who received a copy during the past two years for employment purposes.

If an investigation doesn’t resolve your dispute with the consumer reporting company, you can ask that a statement of the dispute be included in your file and in future reports. You also can ask the consumer reporting company to provide your statement to anyone who received a copy of your report in the recent past. You can expect to pay a fee for this service.

STEP TWO

Tell the creditor or other information provider, in writing, that you dispute an item. Be sure to include copies (NOT originals) of documents that support your position. Many providers specify an address for disputes. If the provider reports the item to a consumer reporting company, it must include a notice of your dispute. And if you are correct – that is, if the information is found to be inaccurate – the information provider may not report it again.

For more information, see How to Dispute Credit Report Errors at ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ .

Reporting Accurate Negative Information

When negative information in your report is accurate, only the passage of time can assure its removal. A consumer reporting company can report most accurate negative information for seven years and bankruptcy information for 10 years. Information about an unpaid judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. There is no time limit on reporting: information about criminal convictions; information reported in response to your application for a job that pays more than $75,000 a year; and information reported because you’ve applied for more than $150,000 worth of credit or life insurance. There is a standard method for calculating the seven-year reporting period. Generally, the period runs from the date that the event took place.

For more information, see Building a Better Credit Report at ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ .

The Credit Repair Organizations Act

By law, credit repair organizations must give you a copy of the “Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law” before you sign a contract. They also must give you a written contract that spells out your rights and obligations. Read these documents before you sign anything. The law contains specific protections for you. For example, a credit repair company cannot:

• make false claims about their services
• charge you until they have completed the promised services
• perform any services until they have your signature on a written contract and have completed a three-day waiting period. During this time, you can cancel the contract without paying any fees

Your contract must specify:

• the payment terms for services, including their total cost
• a detailed description of the services to be performed
• how long it will take to achieve the results
• any guarantees they offer
• the company’s name and business address

Have You Been Victimized?

Many states have laws regulating credit repair companies. State law enforcement officials may be helpful if you’ve lost money to credit repair scams.

If you’ve had a problem with a credit repair company, don’t be embarrassed to report it. While you may fear that contacting the government will only make your problems worse, remember that laws are in place to protect you. Contact your local consumer affairs office or your state Attorney General (AGs). Many AGs have toll-free consumer hotlines. Check the Blue Pages of your telephone directory for the phone number or check www.naag.org for a list of state Attorneys General.

Need Help? Don’t Despair

Just because you have a poor credit report doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get credit. Creditors set their own credit-granting standards and not all of them look at your credit history the same way. Some may look only at more recent years to evaluate you for credit, and they may grant credit if your bill-paying history has improved. It may be worthwhile to contact creditors informally to discuss their credit standards.

If you’re not disciplined enough to create a workable budget and stick to it, work out a repayment plan with your creditors, or keep track of mounting bills, consider contacting a credit counseling organization. Many credit counseling organizations are nonprofit and work with you to solve your financial problems. But not all are reputable. For example, just because an organization says it’s “nonprofit,” there’s no guarantee that its services are free, affordable, or even legitimate. In fact, some credit counseling organizations charge high fees, or hide their fees by pressuring consumers to make “voluntary” contributions that only cause more debt.

Most credit counselors offer services through local offices, the Internet, or on the telephone. If possible, find an organization that offers in-person counseling. Many universities, military bases, credit unions, housing authorities, and branches of the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service operate nonprofit credit counseling programs. Your financial institution, local consumer protection agency, and friends and family also may be good sources of information and referrals.

If you are considering filing for bankruptcy, you should know about one major change to the bankruptcy laws: As of October 17, 2005, you must get credit counseling from a government-approved organization within six months before you file for bankruptcy relief. You can find a state-by-state list of government-approved organizations at www.usdoj.gov/ust. That is the website of the U.S. Trustee Program, the organization within the U.S. Department of Justice that supervises bankruptcy cases and trustees.

Reputable credit counseling organizations can advise you on managing your money and debts, help you develop a budget, and offer free educational materials and workshops. Their counselors are certified and trained in the areas of consumer credit, money and debt management, and budgeting. Counselors discuss your entire financial situation with you, and help you develop a personalized plan to solve your money problems. An initial counseling session typically lasts an hour, with an offer of follow-up sessions.
For more information, see Knee Deep in Debt and Fiscal Fitness: Choosing a Credit Counselor at ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ .

Do-It-Yourself Check-Up

Even if you don’t have a poor credit history, some financial advisors and consumer advocates suggest you review your credit report periodically

• because the information it contains affects whether you can get a loan or insurance — and how much you will have to pay for it.
• to make sure the information is accurate, complete, and up-to-date before you apply for a loan for a major purchase like a house or car, buy insurance, or apply for a job.
• to help guard against identity theft. That’s when someone uses your personal information — like your name, your Social Security number, or your credit card number — to commit fraud. Identity thieves may use your information to open a new credit card account in your name. Then, when they don’t pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report. Inaccurate information like that could affect your ability to get credit, insurance, or even a job.

Sample Dispute Letter

Date
Your Name
Your Address
Your City, State, Zip Code

Complaint Department
Name of Company
Address
City, State, Zip Code

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to dispute the following information in my file. The items I dispute also are encircled on the attached copy of the report I received.

This item (identify item(s) disputed by name of source, such as creditors or tax court, and identify type of item, such as credit account, judgment, etc.) is (inaccurate or incomplete) because (describe what is inaccurate or incomplete and why). I am requesting that the item be deleted (or request another specific change) to correct the information.

Enclosed are copies of (use this sentence if applicable and describe any enclosed documentation, such as payment records, court documents) supporting my position. Please investigate this (these) matter(s) and (delete or correct) the disputed item(s) as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
Your name

Enclosures: (List what you are enclosing)

Things you have to know about credit

Most everyone has a credit card, but there can be some hidden fees that can really hurt your bank account First and foremost, be aware of what you’re signing up for when you first get a credit card. While there may be pages and pages of fine print, it’s important to at least skim through to see exactly what you’re agreeing to before you sign on the dotted line. One fee that is commonly thrown into the fine print is a credit limit fee. Consumers are often charged this when they ask to raise their credit limit. While it’s good for your credit score to have more available credit, “some cards will charge you… as much as fifty percent “That’s just outrageous and you shouldn’t have to pay that just to have more credit.” Residual interest may also be hitting you in the wallet. “This means that if you’re paying down debt over time and you’re paying off a whole balance, just because you carried some balance that month… the following month they’ll still assess interest on the balance from the previous month. So, even if you’ve paid off your credit card, the credit card company may still be charging you on your previous balance.

In fact, Americans pay about $31 billion in credit-card fees each year. Here are the ones that are most commonly overlooked:

• The late fee. Banks charge as much as $39 (on top of finance charges) if your payment doesn’t arrive on time. If you’re prone to forgetting, schedule automatic payments through your bank. If it’s only happened once or twice, talk to your creditor. They might just waive the fee.
• The balance-transfer fee. Many cards will advertise low APRs on balance transfers to entice customers, but the transfer fee could negate the advantages. The good news is that some cards don’t have them — Capital One, for example, has no balance-transfer fees on most cards.
• The cash-advance fee. Use your credit card to get cash from an ATM, and you’re actually taking out a loan — probably with a very high interest rate. But you may also have to pay a transaction fee both to your credit-card company and to the bank that owns the ATM you use. All in all, it’s not worth it. Best to avoid cash advances altogether.
• The over-limit fee. Exceed the limit on your credit card and you may have to fork over another $39. Wait — doesn’t that undermine the point of a credit limit? Perhaps, but some companies will OK the over-charge as a “convenience” for you. (But wouldn’t it be more convenient if they just raised your credit limit?) You may want to explicitly let your credit-card company know not to let you charge more than your limit.
• The foreign-currency fee. If you use your card abroad, you’re going to have to pay a hefty fee — typically around 3% of your purchase — so stick with traveler’s checks. If you must use a card, look for one with no fee or low rate before you travel.

Both Visa and MasterCard have recently changed their interchange rates and categories.  Visa even acknowledged that the change represented a 0.6 percent increase in the overall interchange rate average.  While that may not sound like a huge increase, it translates into millions of dollars in additional fee income as card purchases, many made on pricier high rewards cards, will likely eclipse the $2 trillion mark this year.  So even a slight increase in the interchange rate translates into millions more for the card companies and their member banks even though there is still no clear reason for the rate hike in the first place.In fact, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), which keeps data on the costs of card acceptance in the convenience and petroleum marketing industry, reported in April that the cost of card acceptance for their industry increased from $5.4 billion in 2005 to $6.6 billion We all know that credit card late fees, over-limit fees, and those “moving target” interest rates take a bite out of our wallets.  But what you may not know, you absolutely should – and I’m referring to the fact that Visa and MasterCard feed off an even bigger revenue source called “interchange” fees that affect nearly every purchase you make– and they don’t want you to know about it. Interchange is a percentage of each transaction that Visa and MasterCard banks collect every time we use a credit or debit card to buy something. The fee can vary depending on the card you use and where you use it,  but it averages out to about 2 percent of every purchase and affects the cost of goods and services for all consumers whether we pay…which is crazy if you ask me.

8 Good Reasons to Quit Your JOB

1. If I will need to work my arse off, I’d rather do it for something that I own: I firmly believe that hard work is the foundation of success. Even if you consider supposed geniuses like great musicians or writers, history shows that behind each and every one of them there was an incredible amount of hard work. There is no easy way out and there are no shortcuts. So, if that is the case, it is clear that I will need to work damn hard no matter what I choose to do in life. Why not work that hard for my own self then?

2. Should you hit the jackpot with an idea, its your company that will collect most of the profits: Most people think that working for an organization is less risky than having your own business. The reasoning is right to a certain extent. After all, a standard job offers a secure pay check at the end of the month. This means that your income has a lower boundary, it will not go below a certain level no matter what. The problem, however, is that this security comes at the expense of limited earning potential. This means that your income will also have an upper boundary. It will not go above a certain level no matter what. Should you come up with a brilliant idea that generate millions for your company, it is unlikely that you will share the profits. Funny way to QUIT YOUR JOB

3. Companies pay you for your time, not for the value you create: I confess I have never understood the logic behind hourly wages. People’s salary should be based on the value they bring to the company on not on the number of hours they work weekly or monthly. Some organizations offer performance based retributions, that is a beginning but it is not enough. Think about a book. You are willing to pay a certain price for that book because you will get some value out of it right? Now, it does not matter if the writer took 10, 5 or 2 years to write the book. The price you are willing to pay is still the same and proportional to the value the book has to you.

4. Hierarchy and politics? No Thanks: Large organizations tend to be hierarchical and there is nothing you can do about it. People are classified according to their rank or seniority rather than by the quality of their ideas or by their drive. Sometime ago I was trying to implement the first internal blog for my division. The first thing I did was to call directly the HQ guy who was responsible for the communications platform, and he assured me that it would take no longer than 1 week to set the blog up. Guess what, after a couple of days I received a call from the Communications manager from our division, she wanted to “explain to me the rules of the game”(!). Basically she told me that all the communications related requests needed to pass through her no matter what, and she would therefore take charge of the blog set up. Two months after that call my division was still waiting for the blog.

5. I want to work on my own terms: Some time ago, more specifically under the industrial age, it probably made sense to get people grouped together in a single location, for a specific time span, all wearing a standard uniform. Do the same rules apply to the information age, though? I do not think so. If someday my company will grow so that I will need to hire people all I will tell them is: “Look, I don’t care if you work at 4 pm or in the middle of the night, at home or in the office, and if you do come to the office I don’t care if you wear shorts and sandals just like I don’t care if you listen to music while you work, do as you please as long as you get the job done!”.

6. Even if you screw it up for 10 years you will still learn a lot more: Many people told me to wait a couple of years more before starting my company. They said that I still lacked the experience. Well, maybe they are right and I do lack the experience. So what? Even if I get every thing wrong for the first 10 years I will probably learn a lot more than if I had stayed inside a large corporation. When you go alone you need to take all the decisions, solve all the problems and bear all the responsibility.

7. Are you doing what you love?: Passion is difficult to fake, you are either doing what you love or you are not, there is no in-between. Suppose you just won the lottery and money is not a problem anymore. What kind of work would you still be willing to do even for free? Personally I would write articles to share my ideas and would pursue some entrepreneurial projects. The question then becomes: “Do I really need to win the lottery to start doing that?”. Hell no! Once you realize that, it becomes much easier to drop everything else and start working on things that you really love.

8. Spend More Time With Family. It’s kind of sad but the only time most people spend time family other then immediate family is at a funeral. I wish more Americans had more time on there hands to spend time with the people the love not the people they work with.

Few More Great Reasons

 Reasons to quit your job

 In the Interest of National Security

We are living in a new world of fear and terror. Everything has changed. Daily updates to the Terror Alert Level reveal an ever-present danger. To help facilitate the tracking of all citizens, the forced identification using the I-9 form that allows every red blooded American citizen to work would be invaluable in the service of national security. Terrorist would be hard pressed to reacquire legitimate jobs when faced with the daunting task of producing identification after Quit Your Job Day.

 For the Children

Every year children are born in alarming numbers. Without the “Young Upwardly-Mobile Persons” (Yuppies) creating a necessary vacuum in the lower level jobs, hundreds, if not thousands, of children might be born without the hope of an entry level job upon graduation. Clearly the effects of Quit Your Job Day would help millions of children achieve their pre-natal goals of a rewarding career, at least until the following year, when they, too, are naturally expected to quit.

 Personal Financial Growth

Most people are underpaid from the moment they start their first job. The reason for this is because an updated resume would show their most recent work experience, increasing their value in the marketplace. With very few exceptions, the normal career path is one of uninterrupted salary growth, with the highest increases occurring shortly after being hired at a new job. Think of Quit Your Job Day as accelerating the normal Darwinistic cycle of salary fitness for your personal career species.

 The National Economy

It’s no secret that our national economy is in dire straights. Not since The Great Depression have we heard such upbeat predictions from our national leaders, a sure sign that we are headed in the wrong direction. You may be asking yourself “But what can one person do?” The answer is simple: quit your job. In market economics there are two driving forces. These are supply and demand. If there was a coordinated mass termination, there would be an immediate effect on the employment marketplace. Employers, lacking a substantial measure of their workforce, would be forced to pay higher wages to attract employees. Think of it as ad-hoc collective bargaining in a non-deterministic free market. Or just think about how screwed your boss would be when everyone quit at once. In short, everyone who participates is likely to get a raise, and with no employees whatsoever, the raise would naturally burst through the ceiling.

 Defectors get the Shaft

Quit your job. Everybody’s doing it. Well, everyone except you. Imagine, for a moment, that Quit Your Job Day has arrived. The vast majority of your coworkers, being intelligent, emancipated, self-directed individualists, quit en masse. Your boss, desperate to maintain his (or, less likely, her) middle management status, will pile an ungodly workload upon the remaining staff members. You, being the brightest of those who remained, might receive a ceremonial title such as “office manager”, but, much like a field promotion to Captain in The Charge of the Light Brigade, it will prove nothing more than a harbinger of doom. Soon new people will be hired. Their higher salaries will only aggravate you and in time your employee of the month awards will seem pale comfort for the days and weeks of extra work you were forced to undertake for no real compensation. We think you should simply quit your job with the rest of us.

For Great Justice

It is not to be forgotten that all your jobs are belong to us, and having no chance to survive, make your time