YOUR CONSUMER RIGHTS

YOUR CONSUMER RIGHTS

Consumer credit reporting agencies (CRAs) collect credit information

on you from banks, department stores, credit card companies, and

other types of financial institutions that may extend you credit.

CRAs make money selling the information they have in their databank,

including information about your credit profile. Because of this, it is

only prudent that you exercise your legal rights as a consumer, know

what is in your credit file, make sure they are accurate and challenge it

and have it corrected when necessary.

CRAs are required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act to tell you the

contents of your file. There are several ways to contact a CRA:

IF DECLINED FOR A LOAN, call the lender who is required by the

FCRA to give you the name, address and phone number of the CRA it

used in evaluating your loan application.

IF YOU'RE JUST CURIOUS, you can find out the contents of your file

by calling the CRA nearest you. They are usually listed in the

hponebook under Credit Reporting Agencies.

If your report contains inaccurate information, you may challenge the

inclusion of it in your file. One option: If a lender has made an error,

point it out to the lender and request that corrected information be sent

to the CRA.

WOMEN AND CREDIT

WOMEN AND CREDIT

Many women complain about not having any credit. Those

complaining are those who REALIZE that they do not have credit,

single women or divorced women, specifically. However, there are

many married women who have no credit because financial matters

are handled by their husbands, and they are not even aware that they

are without any type of credit rating. This is a large problem in

America today.

Divorce seems to be the predicament that taunts women in search of

their own good credit ratings. Either the wife did not have any of her

own credit during the marriage, or the credit she shared with her

husband took a bad turn during the divorce.

The key to your credit success, regardless of your marital success, is

that you build your own "sole and separate" credit. There are many

benefits to be gained. First, in the event that the marraige does not

work out, each spouse may part with their own credit. If the wife was

always on time with her payments and the husband was poor with his

payment schedule, they should be able to part ways with her credit

intact.

Another good reason to have separate credit is in the event a financial

tragedy comes your way, leaving you with no alternative but to file

banckruptcy. It might be possible that one partner could file while the

other remains clear.

If your husband currently has all the credit, have him place you on his

accounts as a "sharer" of the account. You want to be sure you share

the account but not the contractual liability. This way you will NOT be

responsible for his errors. If it does show as a negative on your rating,

you will be able to dispute it as you did only share the account. If the

account is in good standing, work on getting it on your credit rating as

you may take the responsi-bility for the good rating. For men in

similar situations, try the same method.

If neither the wife or the husband have any credit, then both would sign

the account as "joint" in privileges and contractual liability. Continue

this process until you both have enough credit to get credit singularly.

Then, as your new sole and separate accounts begin to get

established, start closing the joint accounts you once shared. The

purpose of this is to establish your credit as "sole and separate".

Consider also the use of a joint checking account. A clean checking

history is very helpful in building credit, however, be wary if your

spouse is particularly neglectful when maintaining a checking account-

the end result could cause more harm than good.

WINNING THE CREDIT-CARD GAME

WINNING THE CREDIT-CARD GAME

Some banks are eliminating the standard 25 or 30-day grace period

within which you may pay your bill within being charged interest. This

is the normal grace period before interest kicks in. But this is slowly

changing. For example, some banks are offering extremely low fixed

rates, but without a grace period. These cards will charge you interest

from the date it processes your charge slip.

If you usally pay your bills in full within the normal grace period, it is

best you avoid no-grace-period cards. The 25 or 30-day garce period

is more financially significant for you than a lower interest rate.

However, if you carry a balance each month, you're better off with a

lower interest rate. In this case, a lower interest rate can save you

more money than a grace period would.

Most banks and thrifts charge interest from the day they process your

charge slip when you use your card to get cash. In addition to this,

some cards are now assessing cash advanced service charges

based on a percentage of the amount received. It used to be that

service charges were based on a fixed fee, regardless of the amount

of transaction.

If you avoid interest charges by paying off your bill each month, seek

out a card that offer very low interest rates plus a grace period on

purchases. Some institutions periodically offer cards with no fee for

the first year as a promotion.

Don't be lulled into getting "premium" credit cards such as

"goldcards" and Premier VISA. The only significant premium with

these cards is the extra amount you pay in higher annual service fees.

Besides the fancy finish of the card, the only other benefits you get

with premium cards are travel insurance and the extra protection if

your card is lost or stolen. Since by law, you are only liable for up to

$50 if your regular credit cards are lost or stolen, the zero liability you

are getting from premium cards is hardly worth the extra money.

WHY DO COMPANIES ASK FOR YOUR UPS ADDRESS?

WHY DO COMPANIES ASK FOR YOUR UPS ADDRESS?

When we began providing printing services for our customers (in

order to provide full publishing services), little did we realize that so

many people would get so upset and negligent in providing us with a

simple UPS address to ship their order to them. Therefore, I hope this

report helps.

UPS is short for United Parcel Service. They are a separate company

from the United Postal Service and for some reason or another

cannot reach an agreement to deliver mail to a post office box

address. This makes it hard for all of us in mail order, but there is a

way around that: Provide a UPS shipping address when you place a

large order.

What is your UPS shipping address? Your STREET address or

anything other than a post office box. Everybody has a UPS shipping

address. My mother lives in a town of 300 people and all her mail

goes to a post office box.

It's required for every citizen in Dante, Virginia to have a post office

box and to use it as their address. However, her UPS shipping

address is:

Third House on Rte 1420. Yes! Bizarre as it seems everyone has a

UPS shipping address. If you don't know yours, simply call your local

United Parcel Service and find out what it is.

Why don't mail order dealers just ship your printing or product orders

by Parcel Post or 3rd class through the post office? Several reasons

and good ones:

1. Most mail order dealers have a UPS account. This means the

UPS truck comes right to their door every day and picks up packages.

They don't have to haul heavy packages in the car, drive to the

post office and stand in line to pay a clerk. Besides the cost is

only $5 per week for anybody to open up a UPS account and if you

are shipping packages several times per week the $5 cost is

certainly justified!

2. The customer saves a lot of money when a dealer ships their

package by UPS. Shipping 1,000 envelopes (13.7 lbs) would cost

around $6.00 at the post office but only $2.60 by UPS.

3. The customer will get their order quicker. If a dealer mailed the

same package to you through the post office it could take from 2-3

WEEKS for you to receive. UPS only takes 2-3 DAYS in most cases!

4. The customer's order is automatically insured for up to $100 by

UPS. If the dealer mailed the same package through the post office,

he or she would have to pay an additional charge for insurance.

You should now be able to see "why" providing your printer or mail

order company with a UPS shipping address is as important to you as

it is to them!

However, some people don't want anything shipped directly to their

home because they might not be there or a family member might get

the package instead. UPS has a bad reputation for leaving packages

inside a screen door if no one is home opening up the opportunity for

theft.

Therefore, you have 4 choices: (1) You can have the package

delivered to your employer's address (or wherever you might be

during the day); (2) to a friend or neighbor's address (who is home

most of the time); (3) leave a note on your door to NOT leave any UPS

packages and pick them up yourself; or, (4) pay an additional postage

charge for the dealer to ship your order to your post office box

address.

The best rule of thumb for determining additional cost in sending to

your post office box address would be about 40% ADDED on to the

total amount of your order. Why 40%? Isn't that too much for shipping

charges? You must remember: not only does the dealer (or printer)

have to pay the additional postage charges but they have to haul it to

the post office themselves during office hours, take time away from

their daily business, stand in line holding a heavy package and drive

back home. For our printer, this is a 18 mile round trip. (Not everybody

visits the post office everyday, even though they are in mail order.)

Just recently we received a rude comment from a customer who

refused to provide us with his UPS address and demanded we ship to

his post office box. He said: "I'm not in the UPS business and I'm not

in the phone business I'm in the mail order business!" (He didn't want

to place a call to our office to talk to us about this so we didn't have a

chance to educate him on how this situation is out of our control.)

However, the United Parcel Service IS part of the mail order business,

and calling people IS part of the mail order business too.

So the next time you place an order that you know will be sent back to

you in a box (like printing), take the time to make sure you provide the

company with your UPS shipping address OR send extra money!