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Cosmic's Corner of the Space Time Continuum

Tag Archives: identity

Time’s Up! The Fine Art of Shredding

25 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Paperless

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goals, identity, money, organize, paperless

It’s the annual shredfest – anything that isn’t needed anymore goes into the shredder.  There is a great article on Bankrate on How Long to Keep Financial Records that I use as a rule of thumb.  If I have any question (or think I might have potential regrets), I scan before shredding.  Trust me, once the credit bureaus and IRS deadlines have passed, the house or car has been sold or the account has been closed, you can safely shred away.  Notice how many times I said “SHRED”?  A good shredder is an investment in keeping your identity safe – if you don’t have one, get one.

Total shredded and recycled this month – 6 tall kitchen can bags equalling 2 years, several banker boxes and a filing cabinet drawer.  Did I mention that shredding is also therapeutic?  Nothing quite like grinding, chopping and cutting (not to mention clearing out) after a stressful day.

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Back to Living Frugally… Banking

14 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Paperless

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credit, goals, identity, money

First – a tale of two “banks”.  I’ve had my accounts at Bank #1 since my grandfather took me to get my first passbook account in LaGrange, NC.  If you don’t know what a passbook account is, you actually had a book and when you made a withdrawal or a deposit, it was actually written in and stamped by the teller.  Said teller also made you feel important, no matter how small the transaction.  I’ve kept those accounts through various jobs and marriages and businesses.  When I divorced years ago and needed to refinance my house to remove my ex-husband from the mortgage, Wachovia (who had held the mortgage for more than 10 years) literally did not want to talk to me about it.  I asked a few friends in various areas of the real estate and finance industry and got a recommendation to a mortgage banker at Bank #2.  She was terrific, got everything taken care of at that point and even (true to her word) called back when my “not so great deal in the long run but good for the short haul” mortgage was going to go south and worked through a refinance to a fixed 30 year.  Note that for all of this I had a steady income and solid FICO.

Fast forward – I now have checking/savings at Bank #1, mortgage and equity line at Bank #2.  Bank #1 seems to have trouble remembering our names when we go in the bank and the annoying little changes start.  Bank #2 offers us their “best checking and savings line” if we move since our mortgage is there.  After several months, I go look at the offer and yes, it comes up far higher than Bank #1 by comparison.  Not wanting to change all the ePay and autopays immediately, I take a block of cash and open the Bank #2 accounts with the intent to move over gradually.  Good thing I didn’t because 2 months in I start getting $25 monthly fees for having the account.  I go down and inquire and am told that my “total accounts” there don’t meet their “minimum” (by $2000 – remember, I have a mortgage there, so we are talking less than 1%).  They switch me to their budget checking which doesn’t have a monthly fee, but will suck out cash anytime I do anything.  We run our debit cards through the shredder and pack away the checks to make sure we don’t use them ever.

Where are things today?  Bank #1 has officially become Bank #3.  Bank #3 has added fees, changed my account types “to better serve me” and signed me up for some monthly fee protection garbage that apparently activated when my husband requested a replacement debit card.  Bank #2 is now charging a monthly fee to use their debit card.  I’m sure that Bank #3 is not far behind.  And I’m shopping for a financial home – again.  Interest rates are lower than when I last refinanced and I am well past the break even point on the last one, so savings will be worthwhile.  My FICO is good to excellent depending on which of the big three you ask (and well over the “get the good rates” number).  I have a solid employment history, low debt and substantial equity even with the housing crash.  Basically, I’m a danged good customer and I’m hoping someone out there is still interested in that.

Based on research over the last month the first two candidates are a small local bank and my employer credit unions.  My requirements are:  no-fee debit card transactions, electronic banking, no monthly fee checking, competitive mortgages, mobile banking, no “super sekrit special programs that enroll you without warning” and helpful customer service.  I do want all my main accounts, mortgage and regular transactions to be with the same institution for simplicity, though I’m not adverse to putting one of the savings accounts at another, just in case.  Results (and former bank names) coming in subsequent posts, so stay tuned. 🙂

Credit & Identity Monitoring

23 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by cosmichomicide in Paperless

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credit, identity, money, paperless

Really, what’s the point, right?  I mean, you can do all this stuff yourself, for free.  Well, here’s the point – I’ve been using Identity Guard for over a year now and wouldn’t do without it.  I love the “No News is Good News” updates, the FICO score dashboard, the account change alerts and the “dispute an entry” quicklinks.  Frankly, it’s been a huge stress reducer and I’m not even fully using all the features (though I plan to be doing so as the year progresses).  For $14.95 per month it includes credit monitoring, credit card vaulting, password vaulting, online (and mobile) lockbox for key documents (as in less paper) and information as well as several computer security and identity theft features.  The site is easy to use and it is essentially “one stop shopping” for critical personal information services.

I did review and compare several services and Identity Guard ranked consistently at or near the top, I can’t speak personally to other services, but there are several sites that compare credit monitoring companies and plans.  To be fair, this article from Smart Money disagrees with me and makes several free suggestions – $30 to lock all your credit reports so no one can pull them (this also affects any credit checks that you require, though), use the free annual credit reports and file disputes with the companies yourself, etc.  All true – this is not a necessity and may not be worth the expense to you.  For me, it keeps an area of my life managed with little to no effort on my part and provides paperless peace of mind.

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