I had an interesting experience the other day that drove home me the importance of being aware of potential credit fraud/identity theft.  It was also an annoying reminder that in the digital age, there are a lot more ways to be stolen from than there used to be.

I received a phone call the other day from a 1-800 number I didn’t recognize.  Since I was at work and assumed it was a telemarketer, I didn’t answer;  however, the caller left a voice message.  I checked the message and it was an automated call claiming to be from a major bank from whom I have a credit card informing me there had been some suspicious activity on my credit card and that I should call back immediately to clear it up.  Being immediately suspicious, I googled the phone number to try to determine if it really did come from the bank or if it were a scam.  Naturally, I got conflicting reports…some claiming it was legitimate and some claiming it was a phishing scam.

I was almost convinced it was probably a scam and had decided to ignore the call (unwisely) when I received an email from an online vendor I had recently made a purchase from that my credit card had been declined.  Since I was nowhere near my credit limit on the card, I quickly put two and two together and concluded this was the seemingly-fraudulent purchase.  For the life of me I can’t figure out why exactly this particular transaction was flagged since it was nothing out of the ordinary, but I called my bank and sure enough, that’s exactly what had happened.

How To Handle Credit Card Fraud Notifications

While this story has a happy ending, it could just as easily have been a phishing scam.  If somebody called you claiming to be from your credit card company and informed you of suspicious activity, what would you do?  Would you supply them with your credit card number or, even worse, social security number “just to make sure?”  I know a lot of people who would, including a lot of otherwise tech-savvy individuals.  After all, it’s difficult to think straight when you think your identity has just been stolen.

If this ever happens to you, I highly recommend taking the following precautions just to be sure you don’t become  victim.  It could certainly be legitimate, but better safe than sorry.

• Don’t Give Out Any Personal Information To Somebody Who Calls You – The best thing to do in this situation is to politely thank the caller and then hang up.  Make up an excuse if you have to.  While it could be the bank, it could just as easily be an impostor.
• Call The Number Printed On The Back Of Your Card – Practically all credit cards have a customer service number on the back.  By calling that number, you can be 100% certain you are in fact talking to an actual representative of the bank.  If there was really any suspicious activity on your credit card, customer service should be able to help you out just as easily as the person who called you, only now you know you’re not speaking with an impostor.
• If The Call Was Fraudulent, File A Report And Have The Bank Issue You A New Card – Your bank’s customer service representative should be able to assist you in filing a credit card fraud report and issue you a new credit card.  Somebody obviously already has your credit card number or enough information to figure it out, so there’s no point taking chances.
• Check Your Credit Report – This is optional, but you might want to burn one of your three free annual credit reports from annualcreditreport.com just to make sure nothing fishy is going on.  It’s free, so there’s no real reason not to.
• Never Give Out Personal Information To Anybody Unless YOU Called THEM – It’s worth repeating that you can never trust somebody is who they say they are over the phone unless you called them directly.

In this sunny mortgage climate, you might be wondering if you should join the recent frenzy of home refinancing. If you are interested in locking in a lower interest rate, reducing your monthly payment, shortening the term of the mortgage, or switching from a risky variable-rate loan to a secure fixed-rate loan, refinancing might be a good move for you.

But, there are many considerations to take before you jump in the bandwagon with other homeowners. You have to first qualify to refinance your home, pay for upfront costs, and if you are underwater on your mortgage, then you’re out of luck. Also, it will take a few years before you actually start saving money on your new mortgage. While refinancing is a great option, here are a few questions to ask yourself before you take the refinance plunge.

1. How’s your credit score? If your overall is low, you can forget about refinancing right away. Lenders have raised the bar on the type of homeowners they approve, so if your credit score isn’t at least 740, you probably won’t be approved. If your

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Are you and your significant other a “money match”? My wife and I have very similar money habits, but many other couples apparently don’t. In fact, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania:

“Surveys of married adults suggest that opposites attract when it comes to emotional reactions toward spending. That is, ‘tightwads,’ who generally spend less than they would ideally like to spend, and ’spendthrifts,’ who generally spend more than they would ideally like to spend, tend to marry each other…”

The reason for this, they say, is an innate tendency to prefer mates who possess characteristics that are dissimilar from those that we deplore in ourselves. Interesting.

Since money is a frequent cause of marital discord, we all know where this is headed, right? According to the authors:

“In spite of this complementary attraction, spendthrift/tightwad differences within a marriage predict conflict over finances, which in turn predict diminished marital well-being.”

So… Back to the original question. Are you and your significant other on the same page when it comes to spending and saving? If not, has it created an

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This week’s weekly round-up starts off with a big congratulatory blog shout-out to today. It’s a time for champagne and celebration, and its about time you celebrated your own personal financial victory. Being a little more credit savvy in the game of personal finance makes you–and hopefully your credit score– a winner too.

Personal Finance

• The Washington Post writes that .
• reports The Chicago Tribune.
• CashMoneyLife reveals .
• advice from Debt Kid.
• Get Rich Slowly asks you,

Credit Card

• Mainstreet challenges .

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Many people feel not comfortable when they doing their daily activity at their own house. Also, there are some people who only get stressed when they go home and entering their house. If those are the problems that happen to you, you should know what you need to do. For all the solution, redesign and recreate your house, maybe is the best solution that can solve all those problems.

So, what you need now is the help from the professional in recreating your house to become a great, beautiful and comfortable house to live in. there’s only one website that can help you with that. You just visit Homeproimprovement.com. Here you can find the best help from the best expert in home design. You actually can get free Sears Home Consultation here. Just fill up the simple form and get this best service.

You also can call the number here now, to know if you qualified to receive 2009 Stimulus Package, which will give you 12 month no interest and no payment, reduce energy cost and get up to $1500 of Tax Credit. So, if you want to get the best feeling and comfortable place to live in, visit this website and get Sears Home Services now.

Earlier this week, ING Direct announced a new promotion aimed at generating more deposits. Dubbed the “Added Value” CD, they are offering a 12 month CD that pays a 0.15% premium over and above their standard rate. As of right now, that means you’ll get 2.25% APY vs. the standard 2.10% APY.

The catch here is that you have to fund the CD with “new money” that is transferred in from elsewhere. And before you try to get clever and circumvent the rules, keep in mind that they are defining “new money” as deposits over and above your balance as of October 7th, 2009.

In other words… You can’t qualify by simply transferring your money out and then back in. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for a safe place to park you cash for the next year or so, you could do a lot worse than 2.25% APY at a bank like ING Direct. In fact, this ranks amongst the highest 12 month CD rates that are currently available.

If the company you work for doesn’t offer a retirement plan, such as a 401(k), you should lobby for one. So says an article in summer issue of Kiplinger‘s Personal Finance magazine. If that doesn’t work, or you’re self-employed, you should set up and fund an IRA. The right plan will enable you to put aside money on a tax-deferred basis.

The same issue also has an article entitled “Where the (Few) Jobs Are” and mentions a large (very large) employer you may not have considered: Uncle Sam. “The federal government could hire nearly 600,000 new public servants over the next four years,” the article stated. “Nearly every f

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Is it really necessary to buy software programs to clean and/or protect your Windows computer? And either way… Which ones should you use?

“Yesterday it worked, today it is not working, Windows is like that.” -Margaret Segall

Why take advice from me?

Though I do not speak of it often I am an Information Technology Manager (a.k.a. “computer guy”) by trade, and have been cleaning and maintaining desktop PCs, laptops, and servers for almost 10 years now. What have I learned? A ton…

But rather than bore you with a lot of useless information, today I will focus on one topic that you do care about: How to maintain the speed and cleanliness of your computer using nothing but free software.

As you may well know I carefully filter all of my spending decisions, so my preference for free software should come as no surprise. While there are certain programs that must be purchased, the ones needed to clean and maintain your computer do not have to fall into that category. In fact, I have found that free software is 100% effective when it comes to cleaning computers.

Today my goal is to give non-techies a quick, easy, and free way to clean and maintaing their own PCs. Who knows,

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A close relative of the money market mutual fund and high-yield savings account is the money market account.  In fact, it would be safe to say the money market account is a hybrid of the two.  Once quite popular, money market accounts have lots a lot of ground over the years to its two rivals.

Money Market Account Vs Money Market Mutual Funds

Like money market mutual funds, money market accounts invest in a variety of short-term debt instruments in the so-called money market:  certificates of deposit, commercial paper, short-term government bonds, etc.  For all their similarities, however, there are also some major differences.  For example…

• Money Market Accounts are bank deposit accounts, meaning they are FDIC insured.  Since they are deposit accounts, the bank promises to pay a specified rate of interest for the privilege of borrowing your money, just like a savings account.  If the bank invests the money poorly, it’s still on the hook to pay you back.  In the event the bank can’t make good on its promise, the FDIC will step in.
• Money Market Mutual Funds are not deposit accounts.  They are mutual funds, meaning they invest your money on your behalf.  Hence, they are not FDIC insured and if the fund manager makes poor investment decisions and loses your money, they are under no legal obligation to pay it back.  For the record, no money market mutual fund has ever lost money for its investors.
• Due to the presence of FDIC insurance, a money market account will generally pay less interest than a comparable money market mutual fund.  Even though no money market mutual fund has ever lost money for investors, it theoretically could.  In such a case, the money market account’s FDIC insurance coverage would make all the difference.
• Money market mutual funds are slightly riskier than money market accounts.

Why Open A Money Market Account?

So why should you open a money market account?  In my opinion, you probably shouldn’t.  Their decline in popularity is due to a very good reason:  they generally offer lower yields than online high-yield savings accounts but no less risky (online savings accounts are also FDIC insured).  Since online savings accounts are extremely quick and easy to open and manage over the internet, there’s really no advantage I can see to traveling to your local bank’s branch to open an account.  My online savings account of choice is the ING Direct Orange Savings Account and that’s where I hold the majority of my emergency fund.