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Welcome to the Credit.com newsletter!
This free newsletter delivers easy-to-read tidbits about credit
directly from personal finance experts. In this issue, we're focusing on National Consumer Protection Week. We'd love
to hear from you! Send us an
email
with your credit questions or comments
anytime!
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Quick Tip
Consumers without traditional credit cards or bank accounts often turn to pre-paid debit cards for the convenience of credit cards without the risks or the application hurdles. However, many of these cards come with expensive fees and requirements that can sometimes outweigh the benefits.
Credit.com's drop-down menus make it easy to compare pre-paid debit card fees. One of the least expensive cards we’ve found is the All-Access Pre-paid Visa
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Ask John
Inquiries can damage your credit score significantly. Why does this happen and what can you do to protect your score? Our credit scoring guru,
John
Ulzheimer, shares his tips for understanding and managing inquiries in this month's Ask John feature.
Read About Inquiries
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On the Blog
We're talking about frauds and scams online for National Consumer Protection Week. Check in to read true stories from fraud victims, detailed scam profiles, expert tips and interactive poll results.
Read
More About National Consumer Protection Week
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10 Fraud Prevention Tips
It’s National Consumer Protection Week! Each year, the Federal Trade Commission joins with government and consumer groups to promote fraud prevention. Identity theft, phone fraud, phishing, Nigerian 419 scams, and other consumer rip-offs are all included under the theme: “Read Up and Reach Out: Be an Informed Consumer.”
We’re participating in National Consumer Protection Week again this year! Visit Credit.com and our blog, CreditBloggers.com, for more information all week long. In the meantime, here are ten easy things you can to do protect yourself from fraud:
- Put a shredder in your kitchen. A recent Staples study found that most junk mail ends up in the kitchen trash, not in the office. Make sure that all your credit card statements and other sensitive mail are shredded before being thrown away.
- Don’t pay money to get money. The most common scams right now involve asking consumers to wire money in order to supposedly get a larger amount in return. Credit.com posted a warning about one of these scams surrouding loan offers a few months ago.
- Opt-out of pre-approved offers. Call 888-5-OPT-OUT or go online to OptOutPrescreen.com to dramatically reduce the number of credit card offers you receive in the mail. For any you do receive, shred them immediately.
- Check your credit reports regularly. It bears repeating; it’s a crucial step to guard against identity theft. Order your free annual reports at www.annualcreditreport.com or sign up for a monitoring program that scans your credit data automatically.
- Help relatives check their credit, too. Children and the elderly are often targeted for scams. You can check your children’s credit reports by contacting the credit bureaus’ fraud offices. And you can lend your internet expertise to help elderly relatives check their credit data online.
- Know thy scams. Become aware of frequent fraud offenses. For a quick cheat sheet on the top ten scams of 2006, visit ConsumerAffairs.com.
- Protect your home computer. Install security software to foil identity thieves against high-tech viruses and spyware.
- Audit your information. Check your desk at work, home office, and online accounts for potential security risks. Data stored in emails and unlocked files could be exposing you to fraudsters. Try to reset your online passwords regularly.
- Investigate online. If something seems suspicious to you, see if\ you can find some information about the company or offer online before deciding to proceed. Reliable companies should have plenty of records online and should be easy to contact in person.
- Report close calls. The FTC tracks consumer fraud complaints and uses this database to assist law enforcement around the world. If you are contacted by a fraudster, add your report to this library of data.
Do you have a fraud question? Or a story of your own fraud encounter to share? Send an email to our credit experts at tidbits@credit.com! You can learn more about National Consumer Protection Week on the Federal Trade Commission website.
Quote of the Month
“The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat oneself."
- Philip James Bailey
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