This Static Spot is open for sponsor

Click Here to Sponsor MCT Eric Post in Full Page

Afrikaans Afrikaans Albanian Albanian Amharic Amharic Arabic Arabic Armenian Armenian Azerbaijani Azerbaijani Basque Basque Belarusian Belarusian Bengali Bengali Bosnian Bosnian Bulgarian Bulgarian Catalan Catalan Cebuano Cebuano Chichewa Chichewa Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional) Corsican Corsican Croatian Croatian Czech Czech Danish Danish Dutch Dutch English English Esperanto Esperanto Estonian Estonian Filipino Filipino Finnish Finnish French French Frisian Frisian Galician Galician Georgian Georgian German German Greek Greek Gujarati Gujarati Haitian Creole Haitian Creole Hausa Hausa Hawaiian Hawaiian Hebrew Hebrew Hindi Hindi Hmong Hmong Hungarian Hungarian Icelandic Icelandic Igbo Igbo Indonesian Indonesian Irish Irish Italian Italian Japanese Japanese Javanese Javanese Kannada Kannada Kazakh Kazakh Khmer Khmer Korean Korean Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kyrgyz Kyrgyz Lao Lao Latin Latin Latvian Latvian Lithuanian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Luxembourgish Macedonian Macedonian Malagasy Malagasy Malay Malay Malayalam Malayalam Maltese Maltese Maori Maori Marathi Marathi Mongolian Mongolian Myanmar (Burmese) Myanmar (Burmese) Nepali Nepali Norwegian Norwegian Pashto Pashto Persian Persian Polish Polish Portuguese Portuguese Punjabi Punjabi Romanian Romanian Russian Russian Samoan Samoan Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic Serbian Serbian Sesotho Sesotho Shona Shona Sindhi Sindhi Sinhala Sinhala Slovak Slovak Slovenian Slovenian Somali Somali Spanish Spanish Sundanese Sundanese Swahili Swahili Swedish Swedish Tajik Tajik Tamil Tamil Telugu Telugu Thai Thai Turkish Turkish Ukrainian Ukrainian Urdu Urdu Uzbek Uzbek Vietnamese Vietnamese Welsh Welsh Xhosa Xhosa Yiddish Yiddish Yoruba Yoruba Zulu Zulu

 

 

Article Navigation

Back To Main Page

 

Click Here for more articles
Google
Identity theft: Safeguarding Can't Hurt
by: Daryl Campbell
Will we ever get a break? Not right now .In San Diego, police arrested a postal worker for stealing mail and trading it to identity thieves to support his drug habit.

Another arrest involved the hacking of wireless carrier T-MobileUSA's network. According to Fox News, the attacker gained access to a database of 16 million customers including the personel information of the Secret Service agent investigating the break in.

Then there's Choicepoint. When last we left the information giant, criminals broke into their 19 billion records database. Choicepoint now acknowledges previous attacks that date back to the year 2000.

The number of identity theft victims as well as the methods of getting personal information continue to increase sharply. Yet while no 100% guarantees exist online or off, safeguarding can't hurt and one of the best ways for fighting identity theft exist in your own home.

Check your trash.

Going thru your garbage has turned into an exact science and a major goldmine for the identity thieves. The Department of Justice refers to this as "dumpster diving" Check everything you throw away then check it again.

Mark any information including financial statements, driver's license, address and especially your social security # "Sensitive" then shred it. I recommend a crosscut shredder. Throw it away in different garbage cans on different days.

Shred junk mail credit card offers and get taken off the major credit agencies' marketing lists.

If you're not doing it already, get into the habit of taking your mail particulary any bill payments directly to the Post Office. Identity thieves also target mailboxes. They frequently stake out the area and wait for the optimum time. Getting a locked mailbox doesn't hurt either.

Use anti spyware, a firewall and antivirus programs on your computer system. If performing a transaction online make sure the company provides a secure server. They should tell you but if not look for the yellow lock at the bottom of your screen.

Guard your plastic. Examine your credit card statements and request a copy of your credit report. Agencies will send you one free copy per year. If you request more than one, you get charged a fee anywhere from 9 to 20 dollars depending on the credit bureau.

Handle this with care. Eventhough you're doing the right thing in trying to protect yourself, too many inquiries are frowned upon by these agencies and could impact your credit negatively. Joining a credit monitoring company can remove that obstacle.

One caveat.You should exercise vigilance in protecting your credit cards but it's not the total solution that some experts claim. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that 60% of all identity theft cases do NOT involve any existing accounts. Guard your plastic but make guarding your Social security number the top priority.

These methods of protection take on a special significance
due to the identity of the criminals. According to the Better Business Bureau's 2005 Fraud Survey Report, family freinds and neighbors account for half of all identity thieves. You don't want to turn someone you know and love over to the authorities so do your best to eliminate the temptation.

Again, no 100% guarantees exists. You make transactions at the restaurant, corner store, gas station and a host of other places. We all need to deal in this world so there's always a risk factor. Stay vigilant on the things you control and the chances of identity theft can decrease.

Because at all costs you want to avoid what many victims rank as the worst part of identity theft. The nightmare of recovery.

About the author:
Daryl Campbell is a writer and home business owner.Banks say you should check your credit once a year. No problem right? Except it leaves identity thieves the other 364 days to steal it. Get the professionals on your side to watch your back 24/7. How? Go now to => http://digbig.com/4dwsx



Circulated by Article Emporium

 


©2005 - All Rights Reserved

This Static Spot is open for sponsor

Credit Cards Information

Read Articles:


 Don't Get Hacked - Best Practices For Protectin...

 High Volume Merchant Accounts

 Business Plan Basics

 Restaurant Merchant Accounts

 Find The Best Merchant Account

 Home Equity Loans ... Wise or Unwise?

 Wireless Merchant Account?

 Internet Payment Solutions - Need One?

 Identity theft: Safeguarding Can't Hurt

 Contactless Payments: Where's Debit and who wil...

 MasterCard: Then, Now and Why

 Save money basics

 How to register a company

More Article Pages 1 - 2

 

 How to Find the Best Low APR Credit Cards
 by: Morgan Hamilton

Low APR credit cards are much more prevalent than in years past. Competition is stiff and credit card financial institutions offer many nice perks, rewards, points, low annual percentage rates (APR) and other inducements. They want to capture new customers who've never had a credit card but also those who already have a credit card and might like to save money by transferring that card's balance on to their new low APR credit cards.

Of course, there is nothing lower in an APR than zero - and those exist too, although sometimes for a limited time period. It may be that the lowest, or even the zero percentage APR is for an introductory period, after which the rate is higher. The permanent APR is what you want to watch out for, of course. Although if you're not opposed to doing a lot of switching, you can always purchase a low APR credit card, or zero percentage APR credit card, transfer the balance from your current high APR credit card, and then, once the introductory time period has expired and the APR is about to go up on your newest credit card, transfer the balance yet again to a brand new low APR credit card.

Let's look at a few of the low APR credit cards out there, so you know what kinds of options are typically available to you.

Citibank, for example, offers low APR credit cards that give you five percent cash back on any purchase you making at grocery stores and gas stations with your low APR credit card, and one percent back for any purchase elsewhere. The APR on transfers is zero for the first year. If your transfer transaction is at least $1500 you will earn $5 cash back with the low APR credit card. There is no annual fee and the APR after the first year is 12.24 percent.

Discover has a platinum clear card whose low APR is continual. The first year the APR is zero, but after the first year it's still a very competitive 9.99 percent. And there is no annual fee. With these low APR credit cards you earn a five percent cash back bonus on purchases made from hardware and home improvement retailers, restaurants, book vendors, and gas stations. If the retailer doesn't qualify you for the five percent discount you will always get one percent back no matter what you buy and from where with this low APR credit card.

Chase Bank offers low APR credit cards as well. Its zero percent APR is good for six months, after which you will pay 10.49 percent. These low APR credit cards have no annual fee, and offer rewards at the rate of one point for every dollar spent with your Chase card. You can get free airline flights and hotel rooms, as well as cruises and auto rentals. This card also provides $500,000 worth of travel insurance for worldwide vacationing. You can also take advantage of a fifteen percent discount off a Hertz car rental with these low APR credit cards.


©2005 - All Rights Reserved

JV Blogs Visit free hit counter