I'm recently working on getting divorced & my credit was badly damaged because of that. My bank is working with me to help me recover, but I am looking for a basic credit card, not necessairily a large line of credit, and one with REASONABLE fees and interest rates. Also, looking for credit repair services that really work and that areasonably priced.

I would to have to say honestly that I wouldn't do that if I were you. I would not go in that direction. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes when the bill comes in for that credit card(s) start coming in cause in the long run you will have you self A NICE BIG FAT HOLE DUG AND it will take a long time to dig your way out, and then it will take you a much longer time to really get any kind of credit and NOT JUST WITH A BANK . My husband & I did it once with a gas card thought we were smart . In the long haul of it all it took forever to pay it off cause IT'S LIKE HAVING ONE OF THOSE REVOLVING accounts & when the bill arrives, IT COME IN WITH LARGE FEES AND percentages attached TO THEM too .. It may take awhile to rebuild your credit with you being single but you would be better off waiting awhile than to put yourself into that kind of debit especially with a divorce and all. BE PATIENT AND WAIT THAT'S MY ADVICE. I DON'T BELIEVE YOU would be very happy if you put yourself in that kind of debt ..

I've bookmarked this site…

http://debt.123thebest.info/credit_card.html

Good Luck.

While applying for a job, I was told my background check showed that I am a convicted felon in Minnesota..I've never BEEN to Minnesota! This really threatens me in the job market..how do I run my own background check, to see if this should be reported as identity theft? Any knowledgeable answers very much appreciated!
Omg! You guys are freakin' me out..Well at least you made me laugh…Nicely Done, feckers!

I have spent the last 3 months researching and testing public record search sites (including online background check sites) for an online consumer review company http://www.CompleteReviews.net . I would definitely run a background check on yourself to see what comes up. If it is false information, you will have what you need to track it down and get it corrected. Any of the products listed on the consumer review site have been tested and approved. I can vouch for all of them as I was in charge of their testing. You might start with the products that focus on Background Checks (http://www.completereviews.net/backgroundchecks.html ). They will have the most comprehensive results.

If cost is an issue, there is another product you might consider. It is an unlimited search tool that is offering 4 days of unlimited background checks on anyone for $4.95. This is an introductory deal they are putting on. This product isn't quite as extensive as the straight Background Check products but I would bet it would have what you are looking for as it does cover criminal records. You would save a lot of money! Link to that special rate is http://www.completereviews.net/unlimitedsearch.html

Anyway, those are my suggestions for what they are worth!

I am up for a new subscription on my Webroot, but would like to research if this is adequate enough to renew. It seems to have worked so far that I know of. I would like to know what are the best websites to help me, without being one that praises a product because the company that owns it paid a lot for advertising. Also, what are your opinons about Virus Protection programs that are available.

Go to AV Comparisons.org

Nearly a year ago I paid someone to repair my credit. She is licensed. I have a written contract. She has done nothing to help my credit and will not respond to email or telephone inquiries. How can I report her to state licensing agencies (Texas) and the credit bureaus?
This person is not a member of the Better Business Bureau. She works for a mortgage company, but does the "credit repair" independently.
By "independently", I mean she does not represent any company. This is her "side business".
She is not representing a COMPANY. She is not a member of BBB. She is a licensed loan officer who does credit repair INDEPENDENTLY as a SIDE BUSINESS. I do have a signed contract with a ONE YEAR GUARANTEE, signed on July 23, 2006.

Many of these companies do not offer guarantees on their services as it is almost impossible to guarantee that they will improve someone's credit. Unfortunately paying someone for a service is taking a chance. You pay your barber for a haircut in hopes that he/she will provide you with a nice looking hair cut. You pay a lawn care service in hopes that they will improve your lawn care or take care of your lawn better than yourself. Unfortunately all service companies do not always provide the type of service you are looking for. If you can prove that the credit repair company did little to nothing to improve your credit you may have a case, but if they can show documented proof that they indeed did do what they were supposed to and it just simply did not help to improve your credit, you will have a tough time.
I would contact the Texas Attorney General's office and file a complaint, file a complain online with the Better Business Bureau and also look up the company's name doing a google search with the "company's name in quotes" to see if any information comes up about the company taking advantage of anyone or not providing the service they were supposed to. Another good place is ripoffreport.com to see if anyone has had a similar experience. From there you can either contact a small claims court to try and get them to refund your money or you can contact an attorney with everything you have come up with about the company and have the attorney draft the company a letter that says you are going to sue them if they do not refund your money.
Best of luck and sorry to hear about your unfortunate incident with this company. There are many of these types of credit repair companies and many of them are scams. See the blog below for information on credit building, credit scoring and credit maintenance to help improve your credit on your own.

My son and I share the last name. I got a letter saying a card had been closed for late payments. Lately I've been having trouble after losing my job. I didn't immediately recognize that card since I have so many and went on and called the FTC and filed an identity theft complaint. They man said several charges had been made. I later remember after having talked to my son about it that I did authorize him to make some purchases with it and now I don't know what to do!

Is it easy to just call and let them know it was just a careless mistake and that I overreacted? I know I am behind but I am willing to make arrangements/settle and pay off my debt. I don't want this to be blown out of proportion. Any ideas?

Also, I had these cards' addresses changed to my son's so he could take care of it. He did make some payments but ultimately he too fell behind.

Please help

Don't worry about the FTC those complaints are good for nothing, they only use them for statistical purposes and file a lawsuit once in a while if they get a lot of them about the same company,

You need to talk to the credit card company ASAP and ex[lain what happened, if you did not file a police report there is no criminal liability but they could make a big mess if you don't get this straight.

I know this is a scam. I don't know how to remove it in a simple way. I know all these codes and shit about it but where do i enter them in?

You can remove this Spyware Protect 2009 alert scam , by following these steps .

1 Download and intall the Malwarebytes on your computer .
2 Update your Malwarebytes .
3 Scan your computer for all the malwares in your computer .
4 Remove all the malwares , found while scanning with the malwarebytes .
5 Restart your computer .

You can download this form http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

Just as with lots of other things you do in life, using your budget wisely is a skill youll have to learn, just like riding a bike or driving a car. Some of us are better in this then others, managing money and having a good credit score just comes easier to some people.

If you learn how to manage your debts right, you can preserve an excellent credit rating which is going to permit you to keep receiving credit. And in case that you fail and dont manage to continue with on time payments to your creditors (or even go in default) your credit rating will drop and youll be stuck with a bad credit score until you start credit repair or file for bankruptcy.

One of the ways towards the credit repair is to slowly start building your credit score back to previous level. In case that you are not a financial expert, as most of us are not, you are going to need help in this endeavor. This is where credit counselors come in.

Usually credit counseling is done by profit free agencies, and you shouldnt confuse them with profit oriented credit repair firms. The mayor difference between the two is that credit counselors will provide you with information and knowledge for do it yourself credit fix while credit repair companies will do most of the work for you, but will charge you for it.

If you decide to go with a credit repair company be very careful to choose reputable company with years in business and scores of satisfied clients which can verify their record. Also look for a company which is going to work on more then just trying to remove negative items on your credit report. Beware of any shortcuts here, and if any illegal activity is suggested (like getting a new address and through it a new credit rating) run away without turning back, that company is a scam. You can also do a good deed and report them to FTC, it might prevent other people from falling in their trap.

By contrast a credit counselor is going to give you advice about fixing your credit report yourself. One very important advantage of that is that by attempting credit repair yourself youll be learning many things about financial responsibility and financials in general.

Before you begin you should prepare yourself for a long and hard battle, which will require an enormous amount of self discipline, time and patience. However by working with credit counselor, youll be getting a lot of help in making long term financial plans that youll need to start successful credit repair.

Look for a credit counselor which is going to provide you with workshops and educational materials as well as with advice. It will help you to learn how to plan your budget and how to stick to it, this is going to be of a major benefit to you over long time.
You will also receive a personal consultation. That way youll be able study and learn how to make vise financial decisions based on your personal financial experience.

One other thing you should know is that by using a credit counselor for your credit repair effort, you will gain several major benefits you wouldnt receive from a credit repair company. First is that your credit repair will be long term, youll be learning how to handle your money wisely and thus making a long term changes to your financial habits. By doing that it is very unlikely youll ever find your self in a financial trouble caused by overspending again.

Nikola Govorko
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/what-is-the-diference-between-credit-counselors-and-credit-repair-companies-66493.html

The most fearsome of all types of hepatitis is the hepatitis C. This disease, hepatitis C has been considered by many specialists to be an epidemic. It is also known as a silent illness, because you can get hepatitis C for many years and not even know that. Studies have also shown that almost a third of chronic hepatits C patients will, at some point, suffer from symptoms that may threaten their lives.

Hepatitis C can be developed by infection with the hepatitis C virus, which at first was related to intravenous drugs or blood transfusions. Many years after the hepatitis C affected people, its extent was know for a fact. That happened when the first blood test for detecting the hepatitis C virus was available. Many studies have shown that in the first years of hepatitis C, more than a third of the patients developed cirrhosis and more than half even liver cancer. Hepatitis C is the main reason for liver transplants in many countries worldwide.

As many as 300 million of the world’ s population suffer from hepatitis C nowadays. In the eastern part of Europe the number of people affected by hepatitis C seems to be more larger than of those that live in the western part of the continent. The hepatitis C virus is responsible for almost a half of cases of cirrhosis that end in the loss of the patient’ s life and more than 70 percent of people suffering from chronic hepatitis. Studies have shown that for one person that has AIDS, there are almost five people infected with the hepatitis C virus.

In the years to come, hepatitis C will become a major health problem. It is estimated that almost 60 percent of patients who will suffer from hepatitis C virus will develop cirrhosis and the rate of deaths because of hepatitis will almost triple its number.

Nowadays, the treatment for hepatitis C is a pegylated interferon thepary. This hepatitis C treatmnent works in almost half of the patients. Natural remedies for hepatitis C exist, but many of them do not work. The hepatitis C natural remedies that are more reliable are those that focus on the protection of your liver and those that try to keep your immune system healthy. However, there does not exist a natural cure of the hepatitis C virus. Many of the natural remedies against hepatitis C virus are just fakes, sold by charlatans. Doctors have shown that if taking natural hepatitis C remedies you might live a long life, but there is absolutely no natural cure for hepatitis C virus.

For more resources about hepatitis please review http://www.hepatitis-guide.com/hepatitis-c-information.htm or even http://www.hepatitis-guide.com/hepatitis-c-symptoms.htm

Groshan Fabiola
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/all-you-need-to-known-about-hepatitis-c-111550.html

Spam or unwanted / junk email is an attempt to force a message on recipients who often will choose not to receive it. It is flooding the Internet with commercial advertising on dubious products. Is anti spam software a solution to solve the problem?

Spam has become a worldwide problem and is expected to increase exponentially over the next few years, as regulations of spam through legislation have been mostly ineffective and slow. To put it in another way, we may say that the numbers of spamming methods have increased and improved over time and legislators have had a hard time to handle them. However, we can counteract this by installing an anti spam software in conjunction with an anti-virus software as well as internet security software into our computers. We can also learn how to fight against it at various anti-spam websites.

Anti spam software is a program that filters out spam email. It is an easy and powerful way to stop unwanted email. Most anti-spam software works at the network level, that is, protecting the user’s inbox from spam before it even reaches the computer. The anti-spam software uses fuzzy logic and filtering to analyze each email as it arrives and warns the user if it is suspected to be junk mail.

Most anti-spam software also allows the user to preview the unwanted mail before deleting them. The user is able to deal with it effectively before the mail gets to the computer.

Some anti spam software can even be programmed to adapt to the user’s personal preferences by learning the kind of email the user wants to receive. This intelligent software uses advanced learning filters to deliver an efficient approach in solving the problems of the user.

The unique up-to-date system of the anti-spam software ensures that the user is protected against the latest spam threats. This is a good way to stop mails with viruses or large unwanted attachments.

Most of the anti spam software is simple to install with easy to use steps so that the user do not have to waste too much time mastering it. It usually comes with a comprehensive guide, which normally includes some useful animated tutorial materials and frequently asked questions in the DVD software pack or the downloaded software. If you need further information before your purchase, check up the online help desk of the manufacturer.

The user is able to add the email addresses of business and, e-commerce associates as well as friends to a personalized list. Emails sent by them are always recognized when received. At the same time, the anti spam software uses another customizable list of blacklisted email senders to filter out their messages. As the unwanted email will be bounce back to the sender, he will think that the recipient’s email address is not valid and this may reduce future spam. It also allows the user to restore accidentally deleted emails.

In addition, most of the anti spam software runs well on the various operative systems such as Windows 95, 2000, NT and XP and is able to work with many existing email programs including Netscape and Microsoft Outlook.

Ske Chay
http://www.articlesbase.com/spam-articles/anti-spam-software-how-to-gain-more-by-installing-it-72227.html

Identity theft is one of those crimes that most people have heard of, but not everyone understands how it occurs. The act of committing this malicious crime may be simple or complex, and can bring great financial pain to its victim. Don’t let that victim be you.

Identity theft occurs when a person uses another person’s identity as well as personal financial information as their own. Purchases are typically made using the identity of the victim, with the intent to leave the victim responsible for the bill. This crime is done without the knowledge of the victim. When the victim finally becomes aware of the crime, the criminal has disappeared into oblivion, leaving behind a victim with ruined credit, a mountain of debt, and a tainted reputation. Not a pretty situation to be in.

In extreme cases, the implications of identity theft can result in the wrongful arrest of the victim. On the face of the evidence, it is easy for the police investigator to assume that the victim made multiple expensive purchases having absolutely no intention of ever paying. Criminals who engage in identity theft are clever and know the credit card system intimately. They know ways of charging far more than a credit limit on a single card. Without actual proof that identity theft has occurred, it can be assumed that the victim is guilty of the crimes committed under his name. Identity theft is a serious crime, and victims can suffer the implications and consequences of the crime for years to come.

Identity theft takes many different forms. Some cases involve a thief repeatedly withdrawing large sums of cash from another person’s bank account, until the account balance is nil. Other cases may involve the thief assuming another person’s name and using their personal information to obtain a loan.

Armed with the victim’s personal data, an identity thief can obtain a driver’s license, open new lines of credit and bank accounts, and even buy a car and get a mortgage. All paperwork, bills and financial statements from these transactions are sent to the thief’s temporary address, so the victim initially does not know that a crime has been committed in his name. Once the plan has been activated, the thief uses the victim’s credit line for all it is worth in the form of cash advances, loans and credit card debt without the intent to pay. All of these crimes occur with the thief hidden in a shroud of anonymity. Who is the criminal? All merchants assume he who he represents himself to be, but he is representing himself to be the victim. The actual identity of the criminal isn’t revealed. When the debts come to light, the victim is left holding the bag of bills and the thief has long since disappeared into complete anonymity. It can take years to recover, both financially and emotionally, from identity theft.

Here are some warning signs that you may have fallen victim to identity theft:

• You are billed for a credit card that you did not open, although wiser criminals will not have the bill sent to you.

• There are unauthorized notice charges on your credit card statement.

• Bills or credit statements fail to arrive when you expect them. This can indicate that the address has been changed without your knowledge. The criminal does not want you to be aware while he is in the process of using your accounts, so he has the statements sent somewhere else, by going through the proper change of address procedures.

• Unauthorized transfers or withdrawals show on your bank statements. This is a huge red flag and should be investigated immediately.

• Collection agencies call about accounts you never opened. Again, this does not usually happen until after the criminal has disappeared and/or moved on to victimize another person.

• You receive calls or notices about merchandise you did not buy.

• Debts appear on your credit reports that you did not file. This is significant. Even though the criminal might have your statements mailed to a different location, you know your personal information and can check your credit report at any time. The criminal has no way to stop you from doing this.

AS you might imagine, identity theft is a nightmare come to life for the millions of people who have fallen victim to this horrendous crime. Sadly, despite stricter financial transaction processes, higher public awareness of the crime, and the imposition of state and federal laws, the number of identity theft victims continues to rise each year.

In the United States and Canada, many people have reported unauthorized persons withdrawing funds from their personal bank or financial accounts. More serious cases have seen victims reporting a thief who has totally taken over their identities. In these cases, thieves have run up huge debts and committed crimes, all under the name of the victim.

The United States Congress created a new federal law against identity theft in 1998. In spite of the tough laws now on the books, identity theft is more prevalent than ever. Once you have fallen victim, it is obviously too late to prevent the crime from being committed against you. In this instance, grandma was right: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And that is an understatement.

Here are some steps to help you avoid being a victim of identity theft.

1. Shred any documents with personal information on them. Thieves are known to dig through household trash to find this information. Shred it to foil their attempts.

2. Be vary careful about giving out your social security number. Guard it like you would guard your life, because in a sense, you are guarding your financial life. Only give it out when absolutely necessary, and only to parties that are entirely trustworthy.

3. Be careful about storing personal financial data on your computer and sending it over the internet. Use passwords that do not make any sense. Most people use their birthdays, names of children, or other easy-to-guess types of passwords. Don’t make it easy for a criminal to get into your account info electronically.

4. Never place your tax return in your mailbox, stamped, with the flag up to let the postman know to pick up mail! Criminals are known to drive around neighborhoods during tax season looking for flags. Your tax return contains vital financial information. Always bring it to the post office to mail it.

5. Check your credit report regularly. Sign up for a plan if necessary. However, make sure that your inquiries will not be counted against your credit score. Too many inquiries in a short period will negatively affect your score, so make certain that your own inquiries to verify the safety of your file will not be counted against you.

Our personal records are stored in many different places in today’s world. Banks, hospitals, employers, government agencies, brokerage accounts, etc. all have our vital financial information within their records. Put into practice these five steps above, and only give your information to companies that you fully trust. By doing so, you’ll greatly decrease the odds that you’ll fall victim to identity theft.

Greg Roy
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/identity-theft-how-to-protect-yourself-53990.html