February 11th, 2009 
Vijaianand I was asked this question by the visitor of this website. Instead of me answering, I am posting to our Budget Guru Shreyas.
Shreyas, Please go ahead and take the question and give your valuable thoughts.
Question
People are losing jobs everyday and having trouble even to meet their needs. We hear lot of about budgeting these days. How can budgeting help when we are having tough time meeting our needs.
Please answer with some real life situation.
Posted in Education, Financial Literacy, Financial Planning, Saving 
Tags: Budgeting, Financial Planning, Saving 
No Comments » February 3rd, 2009 Vijaianand 
Haggling or Bargaining whatever you want to call, it is the best tool you got at these tough times. I hear about it a lot lately compared to few years ago. In many money magazines, it has become normal to see articles about how to bargain to get a cheaper deals.
This tool was once considered offensive and embrassing by many is now becoming more common. In India and Asian countries, its a normal trading technique. You can also find it being used in Farm markets and Garage Sales.
Bargaining can be used to get cheaper deals on the private party sales like craigslist, Angie list sales or Garage sales websites. Even Medical bills can be to bargained by talking to the hospital or the physician you are using. If you don’t want to do it, there are professional who are experience at medical bills bargaining and you can find them at
http://www.billadvocates.com/
It is your money, don’t just give it away without a fight 🙂
Posted in Education, Financial Literacy, Saving, Shopping, Spending Tags: Bargaining, Haggling No Comments » December 7th, 2008 Vijaianand This post, I am going to talk about how to manage your credit card, how to handle it safely, what are the ways identity can be stolen in real world and What to do when credit card is stolen.
1. Whether you are a student or smart adult, you better make up your mind and plan before start using your first ever credit card. You should plan on how to spend and how are you going to make payment to your charges. It is as simple as it.
2. If you are already an experienced credit card user, I don’t have to tell you anything except be cautious at this credit crisis time. Many banks these days are changing their agreement and how they operate their credit card business. They are jacking up on their ATM charges, so try not to take money out using your credit card. Just use for purchases.
3. Be wary and very careful not to go beyond your credit limits. You might end up paying hefty charges which is the norm but it might be more expensive these hard days as many banks have increased their charges.
4. Check the fine prints which comes to your mail box from credit companies all the time. Don’t throw it out or tear them off. Read them careful if you are really using the credit cards.
Precautionary Measures
Precaution is always better than cure. You can avoid all your worries if you can just take a little of precautionary measure before something bad happens.
1. Don’t carry too many credit cards in your wallet to show off. If you end up losing your wallet, your identity is at the mercy of beholder(thief).
2.Take a Wallet Blueprint – Write down all the credit card numbers and its corresponding 1-800 numbers to call when its lost. Try to write down all other things you carry in the wallet to help out in rare situation when it is lost.
3. Always keep upto date on your credit card statements by signing in online as many banks offer it as free service. You never know bad times hit, these thieves are very smart. So checking often helps you to be act fast instead of waiting for a monthly statement to arrive.
4. Don’t use every card for online purchase. Analyst suggest to keep one card designated for online purchase, that way you don’t have to deal with too many problems at the same time.
5. Check your credit report regularly using credit report services or from the free credit report website http://www.annualcreditreports.com/
6. Opt-out of any credit card offers which is a pain in the first place but it also helps to see whether you are getting a good balance transfer offer. So its upto you whether you want to go thru the pain or not.
7. Shred your mails instead of just throwing them. If you don’t have a shredder, try to atleast tear them tiny bits and pieces.
Thieves Tricky ways
Identity theft is the number one crime in American and even in entire world. It is mainly caused by credit cards. Bad days never knock your door asking for your permission to show up in your life. It just comes and you won’t know when and which avatar it shocks to wet your pants off. These are some common ways thieves steal your identity,
1. Stealing your Wallet with SSN Card and Credit card from your car
2. Cheque books from Mails or Mail box
3. Bills and documents from Trash
4. Scam emails
5. Emails from Classified website which you posted to sell or buy
6. Emails from Phisher pretending like a Bank or mortgage company
7. Calling Kids and offering freebies to gather information
8. Phone call from Banks for SSN info
9. ATM Machines
10. Film Rental Machines
11. Online shopping stores
12. Changing rooms in Mall
13. Parking lots – Underneath your car
14. Pickpocket in Malls by distracting you and so much more.
My Credit Card is Stolen, What to do now?
If it just your credit card stolen, don’t panic. Call your credit card company and report the lost or stolen credit.
If you lost your wallet which had SSN card and everything,
1. Call the local sherrif department or police station and file a compliant.
2. Call all the credit card companies to intimate that your card is stolen and ask them to deactivate it.
3. Call the credit card bureaus and put a freeze on your credit report
4. Put a fraud alert with Credit Bureau as well. Please do everything in writing and send mails via certified mail.
To make your life easier, there are lot of Identity Protection services like Lifelock.com which can help you to stop your identity theft and act on your behalf to stop the leak.
That concludes the series of blogs about IDENTITY THEFT and CREDIT CARDS. I hope it enlightened you all with some useful information and ways you can start using to protect your identity. Please don’t hesitate to add comments and send me an email if you have any questions.
Happy Holidays to all of you!!!
