A: In general, yes. By default, VoIP providers do not list numbers when they issue them, so if you get a new number from a VoIP company, it will be unlisted unless you specifically add it to directories. With the exception of numbers currently carrying a DSL account, you can move an existing phone number from traditional service to any VoIP service without problems. However, keeping your VoIP number unlisted can be a little bit more complicated when you transfer it from a traditional phone service.

Listing is handled by your original phone company, so if your number is currently unlisted, be sure to tell the company you would like the number to remain unlisted when you port it to your new VoIP service. Most traditional phone providers have an option to remain unlisted when you port out your number, but it is handled on their end, not through the new VoIP provider. If you have questions about your specific number, try contacting your current phone provider and your new VoIP provider to be sure your number will stay private. If your primary concern is marketing phone calls, you might also consider adding your phone number to the national Do Not Call Registry to prevent telemarketers from calling you at home.

Got more questions about VoIP service? Head over to our VoIP FAQ section for a quick overview, or read comprehensive reviews and choose the right provider for your phone service.

Image Source: tonrulkens on Flickr

A: While people search and background check services like our top-rated option, Intelius, can be great for locating criminal records, marriages, and legal histories, the best resources for finding birth and death records that old are generally geared towards genealogy research. In most states, birth and death records must be at least a certain number of years (often 75) old before they become public information. Once this information is public, it becomes easily accessible for genealogy enthusiasts and historians alike.

Our top three choices, Ancestry.com, Archives.com, and Footnote all do a pretty good job of locating birth, marriage, and death records, as well as census data, immigration information, and a wide range of other resources. We recommend Ancestry.com for its large resource base and ease of use, particularly for people planning to build a family tree. Footnote is more geared towards historians, if you're doing research on a family other than your own.

To compare all the genealogy services we've reviewed, head over to our comparison chart.

Source: Karolina Kabat on Flickr

A: This depends on how your phones are currently set up. If, like many people, you use a standard cordless phone system where one base phone plugs into a standard phone jack in the wall and the others transmit wirelessly from that base unit, your phones should work exactly the same with a VoIP system once you plug the base unit into your VoIP adapter.

If all four phones currently plug into their own wall jacks, you have a couple of options for multiple phones. If your phones are plugged in in separate rooms, you might want to use wireless phone jacks, also known as portable phone jacks, to connect your phones through the electrical wiring in your house. A main base plugs in to the VoIP adapter, and then individual extender ports for each phone plug into electrical outlets around the house. This can cause some interference or audio issues, but is simpler than some of the other options.

Splitters are another possibility if you don't mind dealing with running wires from room to room. A splitter plugs into the VoIP phone jack and provides multiple phone ports, which you can then use to plug in a number of phones.

Finally, you can use your existing telephone wiring to route your VoIP service throughout your home. This option is best if you live in a single-family house, as redoing the wiring might cause problems for other residents in an apartment or condo building. To do this, you must separate your house's wiring from the phone company's outside system and connect it to the VoIP adapter. This change is reversible. Although you can do the wiring yourself, an electrician can help with the process. Check with your VoIP provider to see if they can recommend an electrician or other professional. VoIP providers may also provide resources to help you do the rewiring yourself. Some VoIP providers advise against rewiring your house because traditional telephone wires carry a charge that can sometimes damage VoIP equipment. If you're thinking about Vonage service, click here to read our blog post on using your existing home wiring with Vonage for more detailed information about rewiring.

If you just need one extra plug, some VoIP providers' adapters have more than one phone port, including one of our top-rated options, VOIPo, which offers an adapter with two phone ports.

Long story short, multiple phones are very doable with VoIP, but you might want to switch to a cordless system, since overall, the simplest solution is definitely to use one main base and a number of cordless handsets rather than to install a splitter, redo home wiring, or use wireless extensions.

Got other questions about VoIP? Compare services head to head with our comprehensive charts for home or business VoIP services. You can also read our FAQs, delve into detailed individual reviews, or take a look at other blog posts answering common VoIP questions.

Source: Yortw on flickr

A: If you currently use your phone line for occasional faxes, you can use a VoIP line in exactly the same way. With Vonage, you can just connect your VoIP phone line to your fax machine as you would with a standard landline. Note that just like a regular phone line, if you are using the line to send or receive a fax, you can't make voice calls at the same time. Many services recommend that you get a second, dedicated fax line if you plan to leave your fax machine connected.

Some VoIP companies also offer internet-based fax features. One of our most popular options, Phone.com offers web-based faxing straight from your internet browser. Check out our full review of Phone.com to find out how to get 10% off six months of the company's Home/Residential Phone Service Plus.

If you're interested in adding separate Internet Fax services to your landline or VoIP service, you can also check out our comparisons and detailed reviews of Internet Fax companies, or read this previous post on faxing with a VoIP account.

A:  Good news—first off, you can check your own credit score and/or report as many times as you want without it affecting your credit score. Checking your own credit score/report is considered a "soft" inquiry and will NOT affect your credit score in any way.  It also won't show up on credit reports given to third parties.

Additionally, subscribing to a legitimate credit monitoring service won't hurt your credit score.  That's because when you subscribe to a credit monitoring service you authorize them to act on your behalf to monitor your credit reports.  This means they can also check your credit scores and reports without it affecting your score.  If you're in the market for a credit monitoring service, take a look at our top-rated Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® and PrivacyGuard.

A:  The Capital One® Venture^SM Rewards Credit Card makes it pretty easy to redeem your miles. You can either directly use the miles you've already accrued by contacting the Rewards Center (toll-free) to book your travel. OR you can shop around and book the travel yourself using your Venture Rewards Card – online, in person or over the phone.

If you choose to book your own travel you can redeem the miles you earn online to get reimbursed for the cost of the travel purchase. This means if you book your own travel, you'll earn miles that you can then redeem for a statement credit, cash back, gift cards or merchandise. (Note: you have 90 days from the date your travel purchase posts to your statement to redeem your miles). It may seem a little complicated, but it helps to think of your miles as something you can either spend directly on travel (by using the Rewards Center) or convert into cash back (by booking the travel yourself, and then using the miles you earned to reimburse yourself with a statement credit).

We really like the Capital One® Venture^SM Rewards Credit Card because users earn a straightforward 2 miles per $1 spent on all purchases….and they can redeem those miles online without a hassle.  But if you'd like to shop around, check out all our Travel Credit Card Reviews.

A: Thanks for your question! The biggest perk of MyPCBackup is that you get unlimited storage space for one computer. Thus, no matter how many files you have, photos in your case, you can back them all up with your one basic subscription. You can definitely backup your directory all at once, but this might take a while. The upload time isn't a big deal though since you can continue using your computer while your files are safely being stored.

Another service that lets you backup an unlimited amount of files for one computer is the top rated Carbonite. To compare all of our online backup services, click here!

A:  Yes, Identity Guard does have a toll-free phone number you can call for more information about their product: 1-855-727-5801. Identity Guard customer service representatives are available via that phone number from 8am to 8pm EST Monday through Friday. This is a dedicated line for NextAdvisor readers, so you'll still be able to get the free 30-day trial AND 25% off the subscription price (bringing price down to $14.99/mo) of top-rated Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® when you call in.

A:  Yes, if you sign up for Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® today, you will find out about the lines of credit opened in your name to date. That's because when you sign up for Identity Guard, you'll receive access to your 3-bureau credit report—a summary of your credit history as provided by each of the 3 credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). Within this summary are all of the credit accounts included in your current credit history as well as the payment history for each account over the last 24 months. You'll also get your credit scores from all 3 credit bureaus for free.

It's important to note that over time, some information does fall off your credit reports. Positive account information remains in your credit report for at least 10 years. Delinquent payment information remains on your credit report for 7 years from the date of delinquency.

We really like Identity Guard as both a credit monitoring and identity theft protection service, and right now they are offering a free 30-day trial and 25% off the subscription price to NextAdvisor readers.

Screenshot of ShoeDazzle Shoes

A: To put it simply, No! You never have to buy anything if you don't feel like it. One of our favorite parts about online fashion clubs is the amount of flexibility they provide for their members. A perfect example of this is the Skip the Month button featured on each of the fashion club sites. Though the specifics vary from club to club, in general, if you decide that you don't want anything one month, you can sign into your account within the first five days of that month and select the Skip the Month option. This way, you will not be charged.

If you forget to select this option in the first five days of the month, you will be charged and will receive one credit. Nothing will be sent to you without your consent! Instead, you can redeem this credit anytime you want for anything on the site. Want to learn more about fashion clubs? Compare them all here!

A:   According to FICO, the gold standard of credit score providers, applying for one new line of credit (whether it's for a secured or unsecured credit card) won't hurt your credit score very much. In fact, "for most people, one additional credit inquiry will take less than five points off their FICO score". Where you need to start being careful is if you're applying for multiple lines of credit (aka, credit cards) over a short period of time. This can be perceived as risky credit behavior and drop your credit score more than just a single credit card application would.

Since it seems one of your primary goals is to rebuild your credit history, you should definitely be applying for a credit card that reports to all 3 credit bureaus. Some good examples are cards developed specifically for those with poor or limited credit, like the Orchard Bank Visa Card and the Capital One® Secured Mastercard®. However, these cards (like all credit card applications, whether they are for secured or unsecured cards) will pull your credit report to determine your creditworthiness.

If your bigger concern is the credit card application not having ANY impact on your credit score, you can try a prepaid debit card like the PrePaid Visa® RushCard.  When you apply for the Rushcard no credit check is run, but it probably won't help improve your credit because it does NOT feature 3-bureau reporting. Instead it reports your payment history to lesser-known (and used) LexisNexis® and PRBC®.

If you're worried about how your credit score fluctuates over time (especially when you apply for credit cards or lines of credit), consider signing up for PrivacyGuard. PrivacyGuard's top-rated credit monitoring service provides 3-bureau credit monitoring as well as monthly updates to your 3-bureau credit scores and reports. Right now PrivacyGuard is offering NextAdvisor readers a 30-day trial for $1. When you sign up for the trial you'll receive all 3 credit scores and reports, and they are yours to keep even if you cancel during the trial period.

A: If you’ve lost your Weight Watchers lifetime membership number, they can retrieve it, as long as you live in the same area where you signed up. Just call 800-651-6000 or go to the site and email Weight Watchers to get your number. If you have moved away from the area where you signed up, Weight Watchers suggests you fill out a new Lifetime Membership Information Request Form at your new Weight Watchers meeting location.

If you are interested in checking out some other diet plans, we review both Do-It-Yourself Plans and Meal Delivery Plans that could fit your diet needs. To check out the reviews, click here.

A: Yes, Nevada is one of 15 states that Cash Central is licensed in, allowing them to offer PayDay loans under state law. Other payday loan services who are not licensed in Nevada, besides being illegal, could use several third party services to get you your loan, meaning your private information is being passed around, so having a licensed lender is the better option.

Cash Central also has a B rating from the Better Business Bureau, and they have a well organized and easy-to-use site. But since the maximum loan period is 18-days, those who are on monthly payday cycles will not be able to borrow early in the month. If you want to know more, check out our review of Cash Central here.

Campers. Check. Boats. Check. Homes. Check, check. Geico offers insurance for a wide variety of things, from ATVs to your identity. Along with boat insurance, they also will insure your JetSki, WaveRunner or Sea-Doo. As for home insurance, it doesn’t matter if you own or rent, have a condo, a house or mobile home, they can insure it all.

You can also manage all of your insured items on Geico’s website. To check out our review of Geico and to get a quote, click here.

]]> http://www.nextadvisor.com/blog/2012/01/11/does-geico-offer-insurance-for-campers-boats-and-homes-as-well-as-autos/feed/ 1 http://www.nextadvisor.com/blog/2012/01/10/will-enrolling-with-trustedid-prevent-my-husband-from-accessing-the-bank-accounts-we-share-as-joint-account-holders/ http://www.nextadvisor.com/blog/2012/01/10/will-enrolling-with-trustedid-prevent-my-husband-from-accessing-the-bank-accounts-we-share-as-joint-account-holders/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:08:02 +0000 Tasha http://www.nextadvisor.com/blog/?p=10873 Q:  I have just enrolled in TrustedID identity theft protection. My husband is a joint account holder on the bank and credit union accounts. He's worried he'll get blocked from using his cards on the accounts – will he?

A:  TrustedID's identity theft protection service will not prevent your husband from using his bank or credit union accounts. That's because TrustedID doesn't monitor the activity within your bank account, but instead scans for the fraudulent use of your bank account number(s) in hundreds of public record databases and the Internet black market. If any unusual activity is detected you'll be alerted. To activate this functionality make sure to enter your bank and credit union account numbers into your online TrustedID account when you enroll (or you can login post-enrollment and add it).

TrustedID doesn't just monitor your bank account number though, read our TrustedID review to learn more about the service and how it helps protect you from identity theft. Right now NextAdvisor readers can even receive a special deal, getting a free 14-day trial and 10% off the subscription price, bringing the cost down to $9.38 per month (w/annual prepay).

A: The best part about Internet fax? You can send and receive faxes to and from traditional fax machines. For most Internet fax companies, you can either send the fax from an email that you set up through the service, or by using the service’s dashboard. The pages you need to fax can be added as an attachment, and should be saved in the order you want them to be transmitted. Need to send the fax to more than one fax machine? You can do that, too. Internet fax services make it easy for you to interact with traditional fax machines.

Not sure which Internet fax service is right for you? If you need help picking an Internet fax service, check out our in-depth reviews and deals here.

A:  Lifelock does help protect your bank account from fraudulent use (and a whole lot more – see our Lifelock review for details). The basic Lifelock service will monitor the Internet black market for fraudulent usage of your bank account number and alert you if it occurs.You'll be prompted to enter your personal information during enrollment, so make sure to add your bank account numbers if you want to monitor for them.

Their enhanced Lifelock Ultimate service includes Internet black market monitoring, plus additional protection for your bank accounts. Lifelock Ultimate scans for changes to contact information on your existing checking and savings accounts, thus helping reduce account takeover by alerting you when your account holder information changes. It will also alert you if new checking or savings account are opened in your name.

We really like Lifelock (and Lifelock Ultimate) as an identity theft protection service. And right now Lifelock is offering NextAdvisor readers a free 30-day trial as well as 10% off, so it's a great time to try it out at no charge.

A:  You can definitely transfer other credit card balances onto the Citi® Diamond Preferred® – $200 Statement Credit card, but the total amount you can transfer depends on what your new credit line will be. Credit card issuers take a number of factors into consideration, including your credit reports and scores. They then determine what your credit line will be on the issued card, in this case the Citi Diamond Preferred card. If you are given an $8,000 or more line of credit, you'll be able to transfer the entire balance from your Wells Fargo credit card onto the Citi Diamond Preferred card. Since the balance transfer fee for this card is "$5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater", if you transfer the whole $8,000 at once the fee will be $240.

If you're looking for a balance transfer credit card without a balance transfer fee, take a look at the Discover® More card. It features a 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months and users will earn cash back for their purchases. Specifically, you'll earn 5% cash back in purchases within select rotating categories and  .25% cash back on all other purchases until you have spent $3,000 annually.  After the $3,000 spent you'll earn 1% cash back. Plus you'll save money on balance transfers because there is NO balance transfer fee for transfers that post to your account by July 10, 2012, a feature we love.

A:  I would say the TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express would be a better choice for you based on your spending patterns. Both the traditional Green and the Gold AmEx cards reward users with 1 point for every dollar spent, while the TrueEarnings Card features generous cash back rewards. Additionally, the TrueEarnings Card is a "2 in 1 card" and has no annual fee with your paid Costco membership – that's a savings of $170 up front ($85 x 2).

With the TrueEarnings Card you'll earn 3% cash back on gasoline purchases of up to $3,000 (1% thereafter), 3% cash back at restaurants, 2% cash back on travel purchases and 1% cash back on all other purchases including at Costco. Based on your stated spend of $5,000 a year at Costco, you could earn up to $110 cash back per year on just your Costco expeditures ($3,000 for gas and $2,000 for everything else), nothing to sneeze at. Plus you'll earn cash back on all the purchases you make outside of Costco, so your earnings could be substantial.

Regarding cancelling your 2 other credit cards, if you are concerned about your credit score you might want to consider keeping them. Cancelling any credit cards can negatively affect your credit score because it reduces the overall amount of credit available to you, which in turn hurts your credit utilization ratio. Additionally, most credit score algorithms take in account how long you've had credit lines and if you've had those cards awhile it may hurt your credit score to cancel them. If you're interested in what your credit scores are now, PrivacyGuard is offering a $1 30-day trial where you'll get all 3 credit scores and reports.  And your scores and reports will be updated monthly so you'll know what your latest score is. Plus you'll get 3-bureau credit monitoring and a bunch of other goodies.

A:  Yes, TrustedID IDEssentials will help protect both your debit/credit cards and your bank accounts from fraudulent use.  When you sign up for TrustedID, you will need to enter any debit/credit and bank account numbers you wish to have monitored.  Once you've entered this data, TrustedID will patrol the Internet black market for any suspicious use and alert you if it occurs.

In addition to monitoring the Internet black and public records for your personal information, top-rated TrustedID IDEssentials also provides 3-bureau credit monitoring, access to all three of your credit reports and scores, medical record protection and anti-spyware software.  Right now TrustedID is offering NextAdvisor readers a free 14-day trial, so you can try it out at no cost.  The best part is you'll get access to your 3-bureau credit scores and reports when you sign up for the free trial, and they are yours to keep even if you cancel during the trial period.

A:  Opening a new credit card account may impact your credit score in the short run, whether you use it or not. That's because most credit scores take into account any new credit you've opened when calculating your score. Opening a new credit line is generally perceived as a having a slightly negative affect on your credit score.  However, by adding new credit to your existing lines of credit (other credit cards, etc) you are increasing the total amount of credit available to you which can be a good thing.  I'll explain below how this might actually help you in the long run.

Using the popular FICO score as a base line for how all credit scores are calculated, you can see from the diagram below that there are 5 different factors considered.  These are your payment history (are you making your payments on time), the amounts you owe, the length of your credit history, new credit and the different types of credit you use.

The 2 factors that come into play with your situation are "new credit" and the "amounts you owe".  Although applying for a new credit card may hurt your credit score a little bit in the short run, increasing the overall amount of credit available to you helps improve your credit utilization ratio which can help your score in the long run.

For example, if previously you had a total of $7,500 worth of credit available to you and you used $5,000 of this credit, your credit utilization ratio would be 67% ($5,000/$7,500).  But if the department store credit card added another $2,500 to the total amount of credit available to you and you still were only using $5,000 worth of credit a month your new ratio would be 50% ($5,000/$10,000).  Since you're now only using 50% of your available credit, this should help improve your credit score over time.  And since "amounts owed" constitute about 30% of your total credit score this is a good thing.

The take away here is that while getting that department store credit card might ding your score for a month or two, if you never use it your credit utilization ratio will improve, which will help your credit score over time – a good thing.  But if you do use it, it won't help your credit score because your ratio won't really improve much.

If you'd like to find out what your 3-bureau credit scores are now, consider signing up for Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® credit monitoring.  Right now they are offering a free 30-day trial, and you'll get all 3 of your credit scores for free when you sign up.  You can cancel any time during the trial period and you'll get to keep your credit scores free of charge.  Identity Guard also updates your credit scores every 3 months so you'll know how they change over time.

A:  Yes, the TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express includes up to $100,000 in Travel Accident Insurance. This insurance is automatic and is included free of charge with the card. You just need to pay for your travel costs (airline ticket, train ticket, etc) with the TrueEarnings card in order to be covered. Other travel benefits include Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance for rental cars and the Global Assist Hotline which provides 24/7 assistance for medical, legal, financial, or other emergencies while traveling more than 100 miles from home.

We really like the TrueEarnings Card because in addition to it's travel benefits, users will earn 3% cash back on gasoline purchases of up to $3,000 (1% thereafter), 3% cash back at restaurants, 2% cash back on travel purchases and 1% cash back on all other purchases including at Costco. But if you're not sold, you can take a look at our other top-rated cash back card reviews and select a card that meets your needs.

A:  The Chase Freedom® Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back card offers 5% cash back in certain rotating categories.  From January 1, 2012 to March 31, 2012, users will earn 5% cash back on all gas station and Amazon.com purchases.  They will also earn 1% cash back on all other purchases and $200 cash back if they spend $500 in the first 3 months of receiving the card.

Or if you're interested in a cash back card that also has a 0% introductory APR, take a look at the Chase Freedom® Visa – $100 Bonus Cash Back + 0% Intro APR card.  Just like the Chase Freedom® Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back card, it features 5% cash back in rotating categories, and from January 1, 2012 to March 31, 2012, users will earn 5% cash back on all gas station and Amazon.com purchases.  Users will also earn a standard 1% unlimited cash back on all others purchases and $100 cash back after spending $500 in the first 3 months.  In addition to all these rewards, users will benefit from a 0% purchase APR for 6 months and a 0% balance transfer APR for  12 months.

If you want to read all our Cash Back Card reviews, check out our Cash Back Comparison page.  Or see all of our credit card categories and choose the best fit for your needs.

A:  The Purchase APR is the interest rate users pay for purchases made on their credit card.  It differs from a Balance Transfer APR, which is the interest rate paid for funds transferred onto a credit card from another credit card.  APR stands for the "annual percentage rate", also known as the interest paid for a whole year.  It's the fee or finance charge users pay for carrying a balance of debt on their credit card.

Typically if the balance is paid in full each month the finance charge (APR) is waived and the user is not charged this fee.  That's why, if at all possible, it's always a good idea to pay off your entire balance (or as much as possible) each month.  If this isn't possible, it's smart to consider a Low APR Card.

Low APR cards offer a low or 0% APR for an introductory period.  This means that the user can carry a balance and not be charged for it during this period.  Some of our top-ranked APR cards include the Citi® Platinum Select® Visa, which has a 0% Purchase and Balance Transfer APR for a lengthy 21 months.  We also like the Citi® Diamond Preferred® – $200 Statement Credit card, which features a 0% Purchase and Balance Transfer APR for 18 months AND a $200 statement credit after you make $500 online purchases in your first 3 months.

Q: If you can't make a payment, can a payday loan company send a check to the DA office if your check doesn’t clear at the bank?

A: Our top-rated payday loan service CashNet USA will actually deposit the money straight into your bank account, so the check should clear, as long as you allow enough time for CashNet USA’s approval process.

The process is simple: Customers sign up online using a simple, secure form, and provide basic information such as name, address, phone number, Social Security number, and employment info. They will notify you via email of your offer. No credit check will be performed, but account verification will be run on your checking account. Once you accept, the money will be deposited electronically in your account.

We rated CashNet USA at the top of the payday loan services we reviewed because it has the highest Better Business Bureau score (A+), their policies feel fair to customers, they offer great incentives to repeat borrowers, and they allow you to opt-out of sharing your information with other businesses. Want to know more? Check out our review and get a 50% discount on lending fees here!