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Credit Card Surcharges Likely Won’t Affect You

If you don’t know by now, merchants can now charge you a surcharge every time you use your credit card. If you have been living under a rock, consumers and the media are playing the role of Chicken Little and this event is the sky falling.

Do yourself a favor and stop for a second.

Stop to get all of the facts. 

Stop top process all of the information before you start a new credit cards are bad campaign.

Stop to understand all of the rules before you go all cash crazy.

swiping credit card

All of the crying over credit card surcharges is mostly uninformed knee-jerk reaction to the media blowing another story out of proportion.

Odds are you won’t ever see a surcharge from any retailer, and it’s not speculation either. Most of that last statement is coming from the facts surround this whole merchant settlement mess.

Keep going…

3 Questions to Ask Your New Tax Preparer

When you need legal assistance, you (hopefully) don’t flip through the phone book to the attorney section and pick a name at random to hire. When you need medical care, you don’t drive around and stop in at the first place you see that says doctor on the door. So why would you choose just anyone to hire to prepare your tax return?

Or for that matter, use a chain tax service where you don’t have a chance to even speak to your assigned tax preparer until you actually start the tax return process?

Some people already have a tax preparer that they trust and have been with for years. Most likely, I am not speaking to them with this message (unless you are looking to switch in which case you should pay attention too). No, this message is for those who are still searching for the right person to handle the task of preparing their taxes.

The thing to remember is that you are hiring someone to do work for you. You should treat it just like you were interviewing an employee, because, essentially it’s the same type of arrangement.

personal tax return

You shouldn’t have to lay out good money for bad service. Do your homework before hiring a tax preparer.

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Identity Theft Prevention Just Takes A Little Effort

How many of you keep your social security card in your wallets?

How many keep your passport or birth certificate lying around the house?

If you do, you run the risk of having more than a few items stolen or a few fraudulent charges on a credit/debit card if you lose your wallet or are the victim of a burglary. You are protected in case your cards fall into the wrong hands, and your insurance will help replace items taken from your home. What you are not covered for, however, is what happens after someone gets their hands on your passport, social security card or any other document that can be used to steal your identity.

And know this: identity theft isn’t only about accessing your financial information either–anything from signing up for a membership or cell phone to actually taking over you identity can occur so it’s not always an easy event to recover from, or even detect.

Wallet full of important documents

Don’t carry anything with you that isn’t necessary for your everyday needs. There is no need for your social security card or birth certificate to be kept anywhere but a secure location.

The best way to protect yourself is to be diligent about how you handle your identifying information. Limiting the documents that are available to be lost or stolen, and not allowing them to fall into the wrong hands is the best way to protect yourself against identity thieves. But, it’s not just about hiding the major things. There are many ways in which prospective identity thieves can get a hold of the things they would to make your life a living hell.

These tips and ideas will go a long way in helping you to keep your identity (and money) your own:

Keep going…

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