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This makes me wonder about insurance claims since I believe that most insurance companies won't pay if an incident is classified as an act of war. A quick Google search turned up this, and this.

Depending on the type of card, etc, the money (or at least all of it) typically does not go back to the issuing vendor any longer. Not sure if it applies to these online points purchases or not. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20060127a1.asp

Average rate of return on savings accounts, 2010: 0.7%
Rate of return on gold, 2010: 35%

Keep laughing.

I used to think the same way, but hasn't that problem more or less been corrected by the recent total reality smack-down? It seems to me that "affordable" and "housing" can once again be used without negation in a sentence that also contains "California".

Oh I don't think so at all.

Based on this site, median house price around my location is $125K, and median house price in the bay area is $585K.

I've found it's not too hard around here to earn over $125K. But I can't imagine Google paying $150K to $200K just to match the local opportunities. Then, add in the cost of living difference, and financially, it would have been too big of a hit.

And stock options? Even in 2005 when I was talking to them, I think the stock option train had already left the station. Sure, the stock's up from 200 to 575 in that timeframe - nothing to sneeze at - but no huge windfall.

And I already did my stint working for a large silicon valley corporate giant. It was so easy to get boxed in creatively, and limited in potential (both in earning potential and opportunities to do something fun). It can be a great first job in someone's career, but not so much fun later in life.

I think it would have been totally exciting to work in Silicon Valley for Google, but it wasn't meant to be. It was just a very weird process when they called me. Sure, I'll talk to anyone about a job if they call. What is there to lose? But I really didn't think it was going to go anywhere, and, well, it didn't.

"The unemployment rate for college graduates is 4.7 percent [bls.gov] this year. That essentially means that, for college graduates, there is no recession: 5 percent unemployment is the national rate you see during boom years. What's more, three years ago the unemployment rate for college graduates was two percent"

This does not mean college graduates are getting careers, it just means they're graduating and finding a job: 43% of recent college grads are underemployed, meaning they accepted a job that do not utilize their degree, and 67% of grads with degrees in arts and sciences (that means you computer science grads) are underemployed.

So just because the unemployment rate for college grads is 4.7% does not mean they're getting jobs, even back in 2004 18% of recent college grads were underemployed.

Even now, 317,000 US waiters and waitresses have at least a bachelor's degree. Clearly we have enough highly educated college grads in this country but even they can not find careers that match their degrees.

3.5) If it is a house you have lived in for 2 of the last 5 years, the first $250k ($500k if you're married) of your appreciation is shielded from taxation.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/real-estate/capital-gains-home-sale-tax-break-a-boon-for-owners-1.aspx

4) If you die this year, there is no estate tax at all. If you die next year (or beyond), the first $1 million of your estate will be shielded from taxation by an offsetting credit for each recipient (if you have 3 kids the total offset is $3 million--1 for each). This issue is active in Congress so both exemptions and rates could be reset this year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estate_tax_in_the_United_States

Third parties aren't likely to do this because having the bank reversing the overdraft fee due to an error is 'free' from the third party's perspective. In some situations, however, the bank will tell you to get the transaction reversed by the third party and then they'll reverse the overdraft fee.

The other gotcha here is if the third party's mistake caused not one but multiple overdraft fees on your account (due to subsequent transactions before you realized you were overdrawn, since you wouldn't have been if they didn't get it wrong.). It's possible for the overdraft fees to be more than the original transaction in this case -- if they accidentally hit "600.00" instead of "60.00" and you also went and got gas, bought a coffee at the convenience store while the gas was pumping, grabbed lunch at work and bought milk on the way home -- that's 5 overdraft fees right there. A quick Google search suggests that the median overdraft fee is 27 dollars, so you just wracked up more in overdraft fees than the business took in receipts.

They revamped the EPA methodology a few years ago, which pushed the ratings down for most cars, so it is a bit more accurate. And locking transmissions only affect highway mileage was my point. Yes, they have been around for two decades, but not on all cars. They are much more common now. The main point is that the difference in actual MPG between an automatic and a manual transmission, assuming the same driver and roads, is much smaller than it used to be two decades ago, and in some cases there is virtually no difference. Bank Rate has an article on it, and others do as well, showing the difference is usually minimal or non-existant.

If we are speaking strictly (as US citizens), then please note that the US government asserts tax on your worldwide income. There is an exclusion on the first $~90k of annual income, but we are speaking *strictly*.

The only way to strictly avoid US taxation is to renounce your US citizenship, but there are clawback provisions to discourage that. However, once you have unwound your US investments/positions, renounced your citizenship (note: be certain not to become a stateless person), and filed your final tax returns, then you will strictly be free of US taxation.

You really cannot choose not to "do business" with the US government unless you are willing to uproot your entire life, likely leave behind your family, sell everything you own, live in a foreign land, and have circumscribed rights to return for visits. Show me a business that has anywhere near this level of coercive control or lock in.

Stop using your credit card as a credit line, and start using it as a way to get up to 56 days extra interest on your money

Have you looked at interest rates lately? The national average Money Market interest rate is 0.78%

Since you seem like a smart guy, I'll assume you can do better than the national average and can get 1% (probably about right, since I know of a better MMA yield, however, with limited withdrawals per month, you probably won't be able to get the full yield). I'm not willing to give you credit for 56 days of float, since you'll be making purchases throughout the month. I'll give you the 25 day grace period plus 1/2 month to get an average float of 365/12/2+25=40 days of float.

Ok, so per $1000 that you charge, guess what your daily interest earned is. $0.027 (2.7 cents) per $1000 per day, minus taxes (interest income is taxable). So if you charge a $100 grocery bill, your float is 0.0027*40=$0.108 - taxes. If you charge $1000, you could maybe earn a whole dollar - taxes! WOOT W00T!!!!111

Or something like that.

plus (often statutory) protections on purchases.

Like what? You have statutory protection against billing errors, but purchase protection? There's a little, but it doesn't amount to much, and there are requirements you have to meet to even qualify.

(you'll get more by putting the money in the bank)

Umm.... not really. Most consumer savings acount now return less than 1%, and the very best are only about 1.5% APR.

Banks ain't what they used to be.

Why can't I buy a frame that simply displays a .RSS on the internet?

Get a Chumby. Or if that's too cute, just buy the Chumby guts and put 'em in your own frame. Screen's a bit small, but it's designed (and intended) to be hacked.

In answer to your question - because nobody pays $100 for something that's just a digital picture frame, and if you're selling them for $20, you've gotta have a pay "service" with recurring revenue to make the business plan work. Knocks most of us techies out of the market. And Grandma won't want to deal with setting up RSS feeds, she just wants something that's easy to set up, and she won't notice the $5/month or whatever the fee is.

As of a couple of years ago, 580,000 people still rent their landline phones from AT&T, and have paid upwards of $10,000 over their lifetimes. We're not talking smartphones here, we're talking that old rotary-dial thing from the 50s.

Never underestimate the power of inertia.

Back in the dialup days, I paid the phone company $8/month for an "answering machine service". When I was on dialup, it was nice to have all incoming calls routed to voicemail. On broadband, no need to pay $8/month for the rest of my life when a $5 surplus answering machine would have done just as well at screening out telemarketers. And yet after I switched to DSL, I took three months to get off my ass and cancel the silly $8/month charge. D'oh.

It is legally theft. Not a problem if you give the money back; big problem if you've already spent it.

Eh, the entire thing was clearly manufactured. All those ARMs just so happened to reset while interest rates were 4x the level they were made at. People who were quite happy making their payments suddenly had them skyrocket, so the bank took the home, then cried and sobbed to everyone who listened about how terrible those mortgage contracts they signed were and how they shouldn't have to be held to them and how if everyone didn't drop everything to shred the contracts they'd throw a temper tantrum and destroy America.

So they got the home AND our tax money.

The clearly part? The next wave of ARM resets are beginning. But the Fed rate is so low that the prime rate is down to 3.25% from 4.5% a year ago. Great for the ARM holders, bad for the banks who are already jonesing for the Fed to start pumping up rates in time for these resets so they can take the house and come back to us crying and threatening us until we give them even more tax money.

High paying industries are very difficult to quit, no matter if your a saver or a spender. IE a smart saver will not keep cash (especially@0.5% rates we have now) So either you make good investments and don't want to pull money out, or not good ones and you don't feel you have the money to take a cut. Spenders are addicted to new good stuff, and their is always more you will want.
Also high paying industries are usually specialized, so try not to stay too long. IE anything more than 5 years experience in any development/programming technology is not adding much value. IE if a developer is desired for a web application for a Real estate site, and a choice is given between a developer with 15 years web experience at a gambling site, or a developer with 2 years of web development in reality, likely the 2 years wins, especially if at a lower salary requirement. I have found myself in a higher paying industry, it pays higher initially but you seam to hit a ceiling sooner than a more competitive industry. Thats (IMHO) because their are only 2 high paying companies in my instance, so I did bid up my salary with job changes but now I have gone from the one, to the other big player (started at a lower company). With 16 years, I am now likely too specialized to get a pay raise outside this industry as a developer, and their HR wont allow me to go back as such to my past employers. Now the only way up is to give up on doing something for a living, and go into management. Or take a initial cut to start over in a bigger pond.

I used to think the same, I didn't believe in taking out a loan to buy something that's going to depreciate in value. However you can earn more investing money than what you'll save in interest. That is in a better economy, however in good tymes and bad tymes some companies pay dividends. PPG Industries has paid out dividends, 37 years in a row. The board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.53. It closed today at $55.15 a share. There are other companies like that who increase dividends every year.

Car loans are usually about 6%.

That depends. Bankrate is showing a dealer interest rate of 1.9% and credit union rates of 4.5%.

most people (myself excluded) don't buy cars based on solving their problem (need for transportation) for the least amount of money.

I've bought 7 vehicles, 6 used ones I paid for in cash, and the 7th was new I paid with a loan I got through the dealer. Of the 6 used ones, the longest one has lasted was about 3 years, and that was even though I rebuilt the engine in it. My new one I bought in 1999, almost 10 years ago, and I still have it.

Now I'm thinking of buying a used motorcycle.

Falcon

More power to you... but

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-living-calculator.aspx

shows
$50,000 in Texas requires $92,591.83 in San Francisco to have the same standard of living.
$50,000 in Texas requires $123,152.79. in New York (Manhattan) to have the same standard of living.

Boy uh, that's a stretch.

Sadly, it's not even close to a stretch at all (aside from the silliness of receiving a punch). I just got a check last week from the FTC claiming that waaaaay back in 1998 a bank apparently sold a list of 3 million credit card numbers for the purpose of "scrubbing" internet transactions. They sold the numbers of other banks' members, so "not doing business with them" would not have gotten you off the list.

Needless to say, some porn company purchased the list and used it to fraudulently charge a lot of people a lot of money. What a punch in the face!

Changes in mortgage rates in the U.S. are tied closer to the LIBOR than the reserve rate. http://www.bankrate.com/rates/interest-rates/libor.aspx

Or it will end up being governed by the state the business operates in - but then imagine states wheeling and dealing with tax rates to get certain businesses to locate in them.

This sounds no different than a story I heard on NPR a few days ago regarding credit card interest rates and usury laws. When the supreme court ruled that credit card companies could charge their customers interest rates allowed by law in the state that the company was based, regardless of the state where the customer was located, all the credit card companies moved.

The first one was Citibank, who moved to South Dakota, and the NPR story was about the process whereby many of the major credit card companies moved en mass to South Dakota in the early 1980s.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20020320a.asp

Unfortunately, just as the federal government can overwhelm and destroy consumer protections in one fell swoop, individual states competing for business can be divided and conquered to achieve the same end.

If you want a higher interest rate at any given time, just check out www.bankrate.com, which is a great site for researching the health of a bank and its various interest rates. Here's a page I often turn to in order to see what the highest rates are:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/mmmf_highratehome.asp?web=brm&params=US,416&prodtype=chksav&market=416&product=33&state=US&sort=2

To choose a bank to deposit money into for savings, I generally will look at the bank with the highest interest rate that also has 4 stars(which indicates very good health). The bank I'm currently with for savings emails me whenever their rate changes, and they have excellent 24/7 customer service, with a competitive interest rate.

Another good site for this kind of thing is the finance section of www.fatwallet.com:

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/

The users keep a running list of the top returning CDs, Savings Accounts, and Credit Cards. They talk about all the minutiae of the different accounts and customer service, etc...

I suppose you think you'll get away with spending money given to you in a bank error as well.

You mean that http://www.bankrate.com/images_MRA/monopoly.jpg isn't a reflection of the real world?

Detroit didn't come up with SUVs to dupe anybody. SUVs were popular because of their versatility, perceived sturdiness and their status.

And because the US decided to give Americans up to $100,000.00 in tax rebates for buying SUVs. Not only did this prop up Detroit and shit all over the environment, according to the Taxpayers for Common Sense, this cost American taxpayers $840 million and $987 million for every 1,000 vehicles sold. They called it "Robin Hood in reverse.

With their recent rise in popularity, accountants have been advising more and more of their clients to take advantage of this loophole in the law. The tax break applies specifically to small business owners -- including doctors, lawyers, financial advisers, real estate agents, and independent contractors -- who buy a truck or SUV for business purposes. Thus, the deduction is legal whether the vehicle is used to haul seven construction workers, 3,000 pounds of plumbing tools, or one certified public accountant. The main requirement is that the buyer uses their SUV more than 50% of the time in their business.

So, for example, last year a business owner could deduct $25,000 outright off the cost of a new SUV. Under Bush's economic stimulus package (which became law last year) the purchaser got an extra 30% bonus deduction off the balance of the sticker price. Subtract another 20% a year in depreciation over five years, and business owners who purchased SUVs already got a hefty tax write-off. Now, Bush wants to increase the small business deduction from $25,000 to $75,000.

In fact, raising the cap on business equipment to $75,000 will make it possible to write off the entire cost of most SUVs (including the Hummer H2 - MSRP $49,270 and BMW X5 - MSRP $40,195) in the first year. Others, like the Hummer H1 will be practically free to the business owner.

W

Detroit didn't come up with SUVs to dupe anybody. SUVs were popular because of their versatility, perceived sturdiness and their status.

And because the US decided to give Americans up to $100,000.00 in tax rebates for buying SUVs. Not only did this prop up Detroit and shit all over the environment, according to the Taxpayers for Common Sense, this cost American taxpayers $840 million and $987 million for every 1,000 vehicles sold. They called it "Robin Hood in reverse.

With their recent rise in popularity, accountants have been advising more and more of their clients to take advantage of this loophole in the law. The tax break applies specifically to small business owners -- including doctors, lawyers, financial advisers, real estate agents, and independent contractors -- who buy a truck or SUV for business purposes. Thus, the deduction is legal whether the vehicle is used to haul seven construction workers, 3,000 pounds of plumbing tools, or one certified public accountant. The main requirement is that the buyer uses their SUV more than 50% of the time in their business.

So, for example, last year a business owner could deduct $25,000 outright off the cost of a new SUV. Under Bush's economic stimulus package (which became law last year) the purchaser got an extra 30% bonus deduction off the balance of the sticker price. Subtract another 20% a year in depreciation over five years, and business owners who purchased SUVs already got a hefty tax write-off. Now, Bush wants to increase the small business deduction from $25,000 to $75,000.

In fact, raising the cap on business equipment to $75,000 will make it possible to write off the entire cost of most SUVs (including the Hummer H2 - MSRP $49,270 and BMW X5 - MSRP $40,195) in the first year. Others, like the Hummer H1 will be practically free to the business owner.

W

Those are called HOA and they suck. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/HOA-horrors1.asp

Is 0% too much savings?

http://www.saschameinrath.com/2008/sep/08/united_states_personal_savings_rate_freaks_me_out
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/sav/20060308a1.asp

Spend spend spend. Wealth is not spending. Cheap debt and depressed savings interest rates cause malinvestment, ruin market insight from cost-benefit analysis, and ultimately result in the formation of economic bubbles.

Ditto...Here is a good URL that talks about disputing credit charges. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20020617a.asp

If you can't find a bank that gives you interest at a few percentage points over inflation, you need a new bank. I have a current account in the US that gives me around 5% - savings accounts give much higher numbers.

Cite? I have one, bankrate.com, which shows that the highest savings / MMA account is currently 3.60. This is below inflation, i.e. use it or lose it. The "time value of money" right now is negative.

Power corrupts — I prefer Republicans strongly — but being in power for this long is not healthy.

This guy, along with a few others (Kennedy-cough-cough), are the "poster children" for term-limits on not just presidency, but other elected offices.

In a remote state such as Alaska, where residents are paid to live there and pay neither income nor sales tax, his constituents have especially little reason to care for his wasting (and, likely, outright stealing) federal government's money, as long as they get a bit of it too.

So basically alaska is a state primarily funded by the rest of the United in which their inhabitants are simply leeching off the rest of the US. Being that they receive so much federal money.

Power corrupts — I prefer Republicans strongly — but being in power for this long is not healthy.

This guy, along with a few others (Kennedy-cough-cough), are the "poster children" for term-limits on not just presidency, but other elected offices.

In a remote state such as Alaska, where residents are paid to live there and pay neither income nor sales tax, his constituents have especially little reason to care for his wasting (and, likely, outright stealing) federal government's money, as long as they get a bit of it too.

Here's the info for all three. This is regulated by the states so it's possible that you might not be able to initiate this from your state. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20030613c2.asp Experian has a handy online form for you to do it. https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=FREEZE

Ever wondered why so many credit cards are issued by companies "in" the usury-friendly state of Delaware?

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20020320a.asp/

Et voila -- zero protection for credit card consumers because state's are prohibited from protecting consumers and the federal government has willfuly chosen not to. In fact, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act of 1999 not only chose not to protect consumers it stripped the only state which still was protecting consumer (Arkansas) of its right to do so.

Well that would really suck IF capital gains were taxed at 38%, but here in America long term capital gains are taxed at about 15%. If you are paying 38% your accountant is stealing from you.

Very true. I would be interesting to know how this is achieved though, since both reducing temperature and increasing pressure will take energy to achieve, as, I assume will the initial extraction process. I will be interesting to see, assuming that it can be done at all, what effect this will have on fuel efficiency (cf. the effect of air conditioning - which relies on compressing fluids to extract heat - on fuel efficiency). Will the benefits of extracting and storing the carbon offset the cost of doing it?

Your dogma is showing - the sales tax has been deductible from the federal tax for years now. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/20041012b1.asp It's currently up in the air as to if this will continue or not, but that's really the Feds at work, not the states.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20071116_SIVs_money_market_funds_a1.asp/

"Too often people pick a money market fund based on convenience or yield instead of taking a look at the underlying investments. Many money market funds have sought higher-yielding investments such as subprime mortgage-backed securities."

It used to be I would have said don't count on that account being kept open the full timer period (I still remember the sweet 10-year, 10% CD I took from a bank in 1985 -- they closed that puppy out after only about 2 years) but these days I would warn you to be careful whether you will even receive back the full amount you gave the bank. In all the instances I've researched so far the banks offering those seemingly-awesome rates are doing so based on investing them in SIVs ... which are based on investing in Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) ... which are based on investing in subprime mortgages. Even if you haven't heard of the growing problems among SIVs or CDOs I'm willing to bet you have heard of the growing (seemingly by billions every week) defaults among subprime mortgages.

As those of us who remember the S&L turmoil (as well as earlier, similar occurrences) know, don't assume that investing with a financial institution that also handles deposit accounts means that a particular "account" they offer you has *any* of the same protections given to deposit accounts. RTFM before handing over your money.

Wrong. Those vehicles cost substantially more to manufacture, and at least some of that cost is pushed onto the buyer at the dealership, with the rest being eaten by the manufacturers who have a marketing need to appear greener than the next guy.

Of course they cost more to manufacture. The point is that, when gas hits $3.00/gallon, money saved on gas fully offsets that extra cost. If gas prices go higher than that (an inevitable situation), buying a hybrid makes economic as well as ecologic sense.

That difference is passed along to purchasers of their other products.

Shred of evidence, please.

And of course, you're ignoring the really ugly reality of the toxicity in the production and disposal of the batteries.

Toyota claims that the Prius' NiMH batteries are fully recyclable, and offers a $200 bounty for anyone who brings them a set. (details)

Further, the people that buy these often do so because of some tax benefit they get for doing so. Which, again, is just them pushing that tax burden off onto other people, most of whom can't afford the hybrid penalty in the price of a vehicle.

If you think that tax collection in the U.S. disproportionately affects the poor, I strongly suggest you write your congresscritter. I fully support incentives for fuel efficient technologies. It's a useful intervention in the market (unlike the subsidies granted to SUVs).

Why should I have to link people who support the leftier side of Gore's base with people like Chavez when they're doing it FOR me

I don't care if you link any particular Democrat with Chavez (since the Left is generally less hostile to him than the Right). I think where you lost me was when you started running around screaming "CHAVEZ! SOCIALISM! DEMONIC! GONNA KILL US ALL! AAAAAAAHHHH!" and then drove the point home by slicing your wrists open. It was a remarkable spectacle, to be sure, but hardly a substitute for actual informed criticism of Chavez or his policies. I think his decision to nationalize the oil industry was wise, his land reforms are laudable, and his outright hostility towards America... well, maybe one of these days *he'll* try to stage a coup to overthrow *our* government, just so we can know how it feels.

Well, which is it? Reducing emissions, or reducing costs that you're most worried about?

Given that energy efficient technologies would do both, I'm not sure I understand the question.

You can't seriously be saying that serious person who seriously advocates a serious reduction in hydrocarbon fuel use wouldn't understand the serious repercussions of thinking that the tiny flow of juice that will come from even seriously improved windmills deployed by the tens of thousands (at over $1m each) would even slow the rate at which we're falling behind in keeping up with demand and distribution. Seriously.

Amateur! Do you really believe that all I was trying to do in that sentence was use the word "seriously" as many times as possible? God knows, had that been my intent, I would be ashamed to only manage three. No, the sublimity of the humor stems from the triply nested subjects, each scorning the other. By forcing me to explain this comedic tour-de-force, you have simultaneously tarnished the joke and demonstrated your unworthiness as a recipient of my efforts.

I won't try so hard this time. Instead, I will simply point once again to the plummeting costs of solar, wind, and geothermal energy as evidence that nuclear energy is unnecessary, remind you of the long-term waste and security issues presented by nuclear power, and raise yet again the question of what sort of quality w

Not only is the Slashdot story wrong in that way, it is misleading in another way: "I am saddened that an institution that provided me with so much great service..." NetBank did not, however, have the best interest rates.

GMAC Bank and HSBC Direct had higher rates than NetBank.

BankRate.com is the site I used to find those two. BankRate.com is a poor quality resource for finding banks, in my opinion, but it is better than nothing. Does anyone know of a better site for shopping banks?

Wow, guess I got out just in time. I pulled my money out of there a couple months ago, closed the account, and moved it into EverBank. When I signed up for NetBank in 2004, they had one of the most competitive interest rates for checking accounts available (according to Bankrate.com). However, as time went on I noticed there were more and more online banks that had better deals. I suppose it wouldn't have been too bad, it looks like all of NetBank's customers automatically are getting transferred to ING Direct.

I don't know exact numerics, because Fair Issac keeps those close to the vest. But with the utilization you have on your cards, you're looking very good. There's a decent article about the credit scoring system here.

We did some consulting work involving two large banks. The managers at one said that their bank had NO technically knowledgeable people who worked for the bank, on contractors. I talked to one of the contractors, and he had very little technical knowledge, also. (How would a bank with no technical knowledge choose which contractors were technically knowledgeable.)

The other bank seemed to have very, very little interest in technical issues, also.

We have accounts with several online banks, including an extremely large international bank. All have web sites with major design problems.

I suppose that is one of the reasons that bank web sites are often IE only.

BankRate.com is terrible, in my opinion, but it seems to be the best bank information web site available.

"The internet may not be a top priority (food, medicine, etc). But, bringing the internet to people may help with these things."

Microloans is making more of an impact than internet access.* Here's more (Yes, it's not just a third-world thing).

*Money makes the world go round, not the internet.

Fraud alerts must be renewed every 90-180 days. Only TransUnion offers 1 year alerts according to this website. Although they are not a guarantee by themselves, they do offer a measure of protection that shouldn't be ignored. There are some subscription services that will automatically renew your fraud alerts for you. Lifelock and Debix are two commercial subscription services that will perform this service for around $50-100/year. I'm sure there are others that I am unaware of.

I use Debix and recently signed up for phone service at a new apartment. About half-way through the sign up procedure, the sales rep put me on hold and transfered me to a lady over in the fraud dept. This was a little shocking at first, until I remembered that I had fraud alerts which needed to be cleared. After I told the lady about the fraud alerts, all she had to do was call the number on my file, and give her name and reason for calling to the automated service. I received the call immediately, and gave my approval. She received notification about my acceptance immediately, and we were able to continue the sign up. The whole ordeal added about 10 minutes to the sign up process.

For $5/month it is a very useful service.

Not if you have a credit freeze, they can't. Seriously, if you don't need to get credit very often, you should seriously think about putting a credit freeze on your credit record.

The idea here is that they're looking for sites that have a privacy policy expressed in XML, something that's been working since 2002 but never really caught on.

Even the few sites that use that have problems. Check out Bankrate.com. According to PrivacyFinder, their policy, from the XML, can be summarized as "BankRate.com may share your information with: Companies that help this site fulfill your requests (for example, shipping a product to you), but these companies must not use your information for any other purpose". Sounds good, and Privacy Finder gives them a high rating.

But their privacy text associated with the XML says "Bankrate uses your personally identifiable information to customize the advertising and content you see on our Web pages, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services and if you permit us, to contact you about special offers and new products. Unless you are entering one of our sweepstakes, Bankrate does not currently share, loan, rent or sell your personally identifiable information."

Their privacy policy text page lets them do even more: " Bankrate uses your personally identifiable information as follows: ... to contact you and deliver information to you that, in some cases, is targeted to your interests, such as targeted banner advertisements, administrative notices, product offerings, and communications relevant to your use of www.bankrate.com." The text policy is far less restrictive than the one associated with the XML.

Similarly, check out Wachovia Financial Services. The XML says they don't share your personal information, but their text privacy page says they can share, say, your loan information with their brokerage, insurance, and credit card units for marketing purposes.

This isn't looking good. And those are major legitimate companies. Further down the food chain, it looks much worse.

The idea here is that they're looking for sites that have a privacy policy expressed in XML, something that's been working since 2002 but never really caught on.

Even the few sites that use that have problems. Check out Bankrate.com. According to PrivacyFinder, their policy, from the XML, can be summarized as "BankRate.com may share your information with: Companies that help this site fulfill your requests (for example, shipping a product to you), but these companies must not use your information for any other purpose". Sounds good, and Privacy Finder gives them a high rating.

But their privacy text associated with the XML says "Bankrate uses your personally identifiable information to customize the advertising and content you see on our Web pages, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services and if you permit us, to contact you about special offers and new products. Unless you are entering one of our sweepstakes, Bankrate does not currently share, loan, rent or sell your personally identifiable information."

Their privacy policy text page lets them do even more: " Bankrate uses your personally identifiable information as follows: ... to contact you and deliver information to you that, in some cases, is targeted to your interests, such as targeted banner advertisements, administrative notices, product offerings, and communications relevant to your use of www.bankrate.com." The text policy is far less restrictive than the one associated with the XML.

Similarly, check out Wachovia Financial Services. The XML says they don't share your personal information, but their text privacy page says they can share, say, your loan information with their brokerage, insurance, and credit card units for marketing purposes.

This isn't looking good. And those are major legitimate companies. Further down the food chain, it looks much worse.

As extreme as this legislation is, I hope it goes through, as long as there are provisions so that incandescents can still be used under certain circumstances.

Actually you are required to report each winning session as income, and then itemize each losing session as a deduction. Unless you are already itemizing this will cost you quite a bit more than $30 in extra taxes ...

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/tips/20010131a.as p

Sure, here you go:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy07/pdf/budget/ overview.pdf (PDF Warning)
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/news/taxguide/200 6taxrates.asp