Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

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Reduce Interruptions, Retake Your Time

This is the second part of streamlining the interruptions in your life.

As of January 1, 2005, the Do Not Call list went in to effect Adding your phone number(s) to the list prohibits companies with who you do NOT have a direct relationship (non-profits and political organizations are exempt) from contacting you for solicitation purposes You can register your telephone number(s) (cell phones too) so that unwanted calls are substantially reduced To register your phone numbers go to www.DoNotCall.gov or call 800-382-1222 Registration takes 31 days to take effect and numbers remain on the list for 5 years, at which time you should re-register So if you registered when the law started, it’s time to re-register.

Also in 2005, the Junk Fax Protection Act was enacted Each fax should include the option for you to remove yourself from that companies fax list, by providing you with a toll free number to call to get your number removed from their list.

Sometimes after all your efforts, you continue to receive unwanted communications, and you have made it clear to the company that you do not wish to be contacted and you have no relationship with them or a sister company and you continue to get contacted, you have the option of reporting the company to their regulatory agency For example, for calls and faxes contact the FTC to file a complaint.

The system is not perfect, but I personally have eliminated most unwanted mail, calls and faxes.

Get Organized by Reducing Junk Mail

Does this sound familiar? You come from after a long hard day You check your mail and more than half of its junk mail Then your phone begins to ring with unsolicited calls interrupting dinner If you have a fax machine, you find pages of unwanted offers for you to go through to find the one page you want You didn’t ask for any of this stuff! So what is a person supposed to do?

For many, simply ignoring the calls, throwing away the junk mail and faxes is the easiest way to deal with the problem However, there are several simple things you can do to help eliminate the problem altogether It’s time to start opting out.

Opting out of junk mail can eliminate a good percentage of unwanted mail Most of your accounts (banks, credit card companies, etc) give you a choice in the form of an opt-out notice It’s typically the insert in the bills the one you usually ignore and toss out Anytime you see the notice that gives you the option of receiving or allowing others to send you information, check the NO box, if you don’t want your information being sold or shared from one company to another For all those other junk mailings that make you say how did I get on this mailing list? Remember that your name and address can be obtained in a variety of ways – credit bureaus, magazines or catalogue subscriptions, published information, etc It’s worth a few minutes to write or call and ask to be removed from the mailing list; you can also specify that your information not be distributed to anyone else For ways to better protect your personal information and to opt-out, check out http://opt-out.cdt.org They offer online opt-outs, as well as a link for automatically generating opt-out letters for you to print and mail.

Next week, I’ll continue with your phone and fax information.