Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

You are here: Home / Archives for Manage Your Credit & Identity

Are You Part of the Equifax Breach?

By now you should have heard about the Equifax credit breach.  About 1.5 million people may have been exposed in just this breach.  Are you one of them?Credit Report Shock

First, if you are not sure, check to see if you were exposed.  Click here to check.

Then follow the instructions to submit your claim if you were exposed.  There are choices to make when you submit your claim, so take you time and read everything before making your choices.

Hopefully, you were not exposed, but if you were you need to act fast to submit your claim.

Reducing Your Interest And/Or Fees

Last, we spoke about bank accounts – now I’ll talk about credit cards.

Do your homework and determine what credit cards your have, what interest rate and fees your paying.

First, you must be honest with yourself and decide which of these two categories you fall into:

  1.  Credit card balances are paid in full each and every month
  2.  You pay your credit card monthly, but carry a balance month to month

Which one are you?

If you are number #1, you are not concerned about the interest rate associated with your credit card.  You pay the balance in full each and every month, so there isn’t interest charged to you.  You need to look at the fees that you might incur.

If you are a number #2, you care about the interest rate and the lower the interest rate is, the less you pay each and every month while you are carrying a balance.

Are you using the right credit card for the spender you are?  If not, look around to determine if there is a better option for you.

Make Your Money Grow

Do you have the best bank / credit union accounts?   How can you tell which is best for you?

For your bank / credit union account, you want to earn the highest interest rate (paid to you) with no (or the lowest) fees.  Start by looking at what you currently have – how much are you earning and paying?  Once you know this information, you have a starting point.  Now compare that with what other’s offer.  Can you do better?  Don’t forget while looking compare both local, out of state and virtual banks / credit unions.  What would you have to do to eliminate all fees?

Keep in mind, that the bank and/or credit union you are looking at must (non negotiable) be FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) for a bank or savings and loan.  Credit Unions are insurance through NCUA (National Credit Union Administration).  This protects your money up to $250,000.  Once you confirm this, then look at how you earn interest and what fees are involved before making your choice.

Personally, we bank both locally and virtually.  We earn interest on both our checking and savings accounts with no fees and do NOT have to carry a large balance in the account to do this.  So if we can do this, you can too.

Other quick tips, that may help you:

  • Don’t link your savings account to your ATM / Debit card
  • Set up automatic savings deposits with each and every paycheck (pay yourself first).

Remember, that every penny your earn or save is more money in your pocket.  Those pennies add up.

 

Ready To Make A Big Purchase

We recently purchased a replacement car.  We bought my 1995 Jeep in September 1994 and we felt it  was time to get another car.

Here are the steps we took before making the purchase:

  • Started to look at cars to determine what manufacturer and model we were interested in (looking a pricing)
  • Reviewed our finances – how much can we put down as a down payment, how much can we afford as a monthly payment, etc?
  • Reviewed our credit to make sure all is well
  • Looked at car loan interest rates from several sources to determine rates and terms
  • Unfroze it to make it accessible to the lender for a car loan

All this took place over about a four month time frame.  Once we determined what car – brand and model, we did our online research for deals (the model and miles).  We wanted to be ready to move as soon as we found the car we wanted.  It had been a long time since we purchased a car, so we weren’t sure what we wanted in an SUV and we were open to most car manufacturers.  This made the search process long, but I knew when we found what we wanted we would be ready.

And it happened a couple of weeks ago, we found the perfect SUV for me.  A couple of years old (2016) with hardly any miles (less than 4,000), certified pre-owned and an extended warranty.  That was the car for me. Saw it on a Thursday and make the decision on Friday – all our preparation made us ready to go.  We picked up the car the following week.

You Can’t Have My Information

There are so many ways that scammers can get your information.  It’s getting harder and harder to stay under their radar.

Personally, we request do a lot to be off lists:

  • Mailing List – we opt out of catalogues and unwanted mail.  We shred a lot – most information with our name and address.
  • Phone – we are on the Do Not Call list and we subscribe to NoMoRobo.
  • Contests / Warranties – we don’t do this either. For warranties, we keep the receipt of purchase with the information in case it’s needed in the future.

We were very careful and put minimal information in the newspaper with the last death notice, we were responsible for.  We give serious thought to what is posted in social media.

This is a constant effort that needs daily attention.

Do you want to know ways scammers get your information?  They can get it through your trash, through your incoming / outgoing mail, over hear you on the phone and so much more.  There are ways you probably don’t even realize.  Here’s an article from AARP 7 Ways Scammers Get Your Information.

 

January Credit Report Reminder!

               

It’s January 2019! Time to start the year off right!

Hello, it’s Jill again, reminding you to get your finances in order for the New Year by checking your credit report. For your first report of the year, use Experian.

How to Order Your Credit Report

The only authorized source for  your report is AnnualCreditReport.com. You won’t be charged and they won’t force you to sign up for “credit monitoring”. It’s yours to review by law.

To Learn More, Visit AnnualCreditReport.com:

  1. Select, Request Your Free Report.
  2. Fill out your information, then click Continue.
  3. When it asks you to select a service, select Experian.

Not comfortable ordering online? There are other ways to order your report:

  • Mail your postal order by downloading the form at AnnualCreditReport.com
  • Call in your order at 1-877-322-8228 FREE

What should you do with your report?

  • Review it for accuracy!
  • Follow the instructions to correct any errors.
  • And, always remember to keep copies for your records.

Were you hoping for your credit score instead? One option is to take a look at CreditKarma.com, Quizzle.com or CreditSesame.com. They won’t give you a FICO score, but they come close by providing a close approximation of your score. And, there’s no charge for you.

P.S. I’ll send you other credit report reminders in May and September to help you keep track for the year.

I work with individuals, couples and families who struggle with their finances and need help getting on the right road – sooner rather than later.
Biography
Jill Russo Foster is an award winning author and nationally acclaimed speaker. Her books – Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day and Cash, Credit, and Your Finances: The Teen Years – help teens and adults understand the importance of personal finance. Using real world examples and her knowledge of the credit and loan industries, she offers information and advice that can be immediately put into action. Her website is www.JillRussoFoster.com

Buy my Books
Cash, Credit, and Your Finances:
The Teen Years

Help your teenagers learn about credit, loans, and savings before they leave home.

Most of our financial problems today are caused by a lack of knowledge. No one wants to admit that they don’t know how to handle their money, but few people do. Today’s world is not a cash world, it’s a credit world. A credit world is a much more complicated world to live in. If your children don’t learn early, they could be headed for trouble.

Order Online

Buy the Book
Thrive in Five: Take Charge of Your Finances In Five Minutes A Day

Each year do you resolve to improve your finances only to have something happen that pushes you back to the same place you were last year?  Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day will help you change that.  With daily short tips that take five minutes or less, this book will help you  improve your credit score, spend less, and save more money – all while getting organized!

Order Online

Buy the Book
111 Ways to Save

If you want to tighten your budget and reduce spending, but don’t know where to start, stop waiting! Try any of these super easy cost-cutting tips to find extra cash in your wallet.
The money saving tips are organized by category, so you can tackle each area of your life.
Savings can be found throughout our lives, but sometimes you need to have a suggestion to see it for yourself. These simple tips will help you to reduce your expenses. In addition, there are charts and lists to simplify your meal planning, travel packing lists, and more to help you plan ahead and save money.
Order Online

The Mindset of Debt

There are times in life we all have had debt, sometimes more than others.  If your resolution is to payoff your debt once and for all, it takes conscious efforts on your part.

This is a great article about breaking your spending addiction, not only paying off your debt but staying debt free.

In One More Day

You have heard about all the security breaches – from major retail chain stores to credit bureaus and more.  You can’t turn on the news or read a newspaper without learning about another breach.

Because of this, I have always encouraged you to freeze your credit to lessen your changes of identity theft.  Well tomorrow is a big day for consumers.  Credit report freezes will become free – no more small fee to freeze your credit and another small fee to unfreeze – all this adds up.  As of tomorrow, September 21, 2018 and just after the one year anniversary of the Equifax breach, there will be no cost to freeze your credit.

Please remember that you will receive a PIN with your freeze.  You will need to keep this in a safe place, but not so safe that you forget where you put it to unfreeze your credit.

In addition, fraud alerts will now be available for 1 year (it was 90 days in the past).

Get out there and take advantage of the free credit freeze tomorrow!

Password Security

At this time of year we are getting ready for back to school.  Along with all the things happening, sometimes cybersecurity isn’t something that you are thinking about.  But it should be.

Your kids are creating new accounts and with that comes passwords.  I am reruning a past newsletter on How To Use A Unique Password For Every Account Without Going Crazy.

In addition, Lass Pass’ blog has a great post on .

Make sure to do these steps and share with your kids to be safer online.  A little time now could save you hours later.