Trusted ID’s dedicated toll free number for NextAdvisor.com readers

Posted by Caitlin on October 28th, 2008

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In addition to our exclusive 30 day free trial and 15% discount, Trusted ID recently set up a dedicated toll free number just for NextAdvisor.com readers. If you are considering signing up and have any questions about the service, call (800) 234-6611 to speak to a Trusted ID representative.

To learn more about Trusted ID or other identity theft protection services, see our reviews and comparison.

• Trusted ID offers exclusive 15% discount promotion to NextAdvisor.com readers
• ID Watchdog launches dedicated 24/7 toll free hotline for NextAdvisor.com visitors
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• Reader Question: What should I do if I think I have been a victim of identity theft?
• Reader Question: Can identity theft really be prevented?

Federal Trade Commission shuts down the Internet’s largest spam ring

Posted by Caitlin on October 15th, 2008

On Tuesday, a federal court in Chicago froze the assets of a spam network known to authorities as HerbalKing and ordered the group to shut down. According to SpamHous, a nonprofit anti-spam research group, at one point HerbalKing was responsible for about one third of all spam on the Internet. The HerbalKing network used a global network of computers infected with malicious software to send billions of messages a day, mainly promoting various pharmaceuticals. Officials and investigators say this international spam operation may be the largest they have ever encountered. F.T.C. commissioner Jon Leibowitz hopes that “at some level this will help make a small dent in the amount of spam coming into consumers’ in-boxes,” but Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at spam-fighting security firm Sophos, stated that “it wouldn’t be a surprise if people don’t notice any difference in their in-box.”

If you are interested in reducing the amount of spam in your in-box, many Internet security software programs offer spam blockers. To learn more about Internet security software, see our reviews and comparison.

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Schwarzenegger vetoes another data protection bill

Posted by Caitlin on October 8th, 2008

Last month, California state lawmakers approved the Consumer Data Protection Act, which would have prohibited most companies from retaining customers’ credit or debit card numbers, verification codes or personal identification numbers. Under this new law, companies that accept recurring payments would be allowed to keep this information, but would be required to follow specific guidelines, such as strengthening electronic firewalls, encrypting personal information and limiting access in order to protect this customer data. The law would also have forced retailers to give customers more details about security breaches.

Although the Consumer Data Protection act was strongly supported by the California State Assembly and Senate, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill last week, just as he vetoed an earlier version of this legislation last year. Schwarzenegger stated that both bills attempted to “legislate in an area where the marketplace has already assigned responsibilities and liabilities that provide for the protection of consumers.” Bob Arnould, senior vice president of government affairs at the California Credit Union League, claimed that the veto “guarantees that millions of additional Californians will have their privacy invaded.”

To learn about identity theft protection services, see our reviews and comparison.

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Say goodbye to inactive credit cards

Posted by Caitlin on October 6th, 2008

Credit card companies aren’t just lowering credit limits in response to the economic downturn. They are also more likely to cancel inactive cards. This can lower your credit score by decreasing your amount of available credit, but also by shortening your credit history. If you have one or more credit cards that haven’t been used for a while but are still open, consider whether or not you need to hang on to them before the credit card company makes the decision for you. If the unused card has a very high credit limit or is one of your oldest cards, consider using it for occasional small purchases in order to keep it active and open. Newer cards or cards with lower credit limits are less essential to your FICO score, so you may consider closing these types of unused credit cards, or allowing the credit card company to do it for you if they so choose.

To learn more about credit cards, see our reviews and comparisons.

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• Why Monitoring Your Credit Score Is More Important Than Ever During The Credit Crisis
• Reader Question: How do I set a fraud alert on my credit report?
• Identity Guard provides extensive identity theft protection and detection
• LifeLock receives 5 star rating from NextAdvisor.com

Why Monitoring Your Credit Score Is More Important Than Ever During The Credit Crisis

Posted by Erik on October 2nd, 2008

As if life weren’t hard enough already during this economic downturn, another side effect of the credit crunch is that your credit score could go down even without any negative information being added to your credit report! That’s right, even if you’re able to continue to pay all your bills on time, and pay off all your credit card balances in full, your credit score may still go down.

Here’s why: a key component of your credit score is the percentage of your available credit that you are using. With lenders, such as credit card companies, becoming more strict in their lending standards, many of them are already lowering credit limits for huge numbers of their customers. Their rationale is that even though nothing has changed with the customer’s credit profile, the bad economy makes the customer a worse credit risk than they were in a good economy.

Okay, fair enough, but now someone that had $25,000 in available credit might only have $15,000. And that person might have used on average $7,500 of credit each month. Even though that person isn’t doing anything differently, they just went from using 30% of their credit to 50%. That’s a big difference that will likely lower their credit score significantly!

Worse yet, since lending standards are now more strict, qualifying for the same loan today vs. a year ago requires a higher credit score. But yours will probably be lowered without even doing anything. Of course, your credit score may go down even further if you’re unable to pay some of your bills on time.

If this all sounds pretty bad, well, it is. But there are some things you can do about it. First, check your mail. By law credit card issuers must notify you of a change to your credit limit.

Second, monitor your credit score. The best way to do this is to sign up for a credit report and score monitoring service. You can read our comparison of credit monitoring services to find the best one for you. Our top pick is Identity Guard, which gives you reports and scores from all three credit bureaus every quarter, monitors any changes to your credit report at the three bureaus daily, and gives you an amazing array of identity theft protection and internet security features. If you think you might be making a big purchase requiring a loan in the near future, you might opt for CreditCheck Total, which gives you unlimited access to all three credit reports and scores, which means you can check your updated credit score every day if you want. All our top recommendations offer free trials so there is no commitment and you can get your credit scores for free.

Third, if you know that you currently have a good credit score, apply for a new credit card. While the limit may not be as high as you would have qualified for a few months ago, whatever credit you do get can help replace the lowered limits on your existing cards. This is an even better idea if you are carrying a balance on your credit card, as you can take advantage of low or 0 introductory balance transfer rates. Read our comparison of the best balance transfer cards to find the best one for you or if you don’t want to transfer a balance, check out our Editor’s Choice of the best credit cards in different categories. Of course, if you’re credit isn’t good, don’t apply for a credit card you think you might be declined for because applying for new credit can lower your score slightly.

We hope you find this information helpful. Check back often or consider subscribing to our RSS feed or email list as we will continue to provide tips to help consumers get through these tough economic times.

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Netflix teams up with Starz to provide more streaming content

Posted by Caitlin on October 2nd, 2008

The Official Netflix Blog announced yesterday that, thanks to an agreement with Starz Play, Netflix will now be making roughly 1,000 new movies and television shows available on demand. If you have a PC and a Netflix subscription, you can watch these movies online instantly. You can also watch streaming Netflix movies on your television if you have a Netflix Player by Roku. The LG BD300 Blu-ray Network player, which will be released in a few days, will also allow you to stream Netflix content to your television. And later this fall the Xbox 360 will be able to stream movies as well. Netflix also promises an option for Mac users to instantly watch movies on their computers by the end of the year.

If you are interested in learning more about Netflix or other online DVD rental services, see our reviews and comparson.

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