Before answering that question, consider how much time you set aside for family, friends, shopping, exercising, sporting events or simply watching your favorite television show or movie. And don’t forget that treasured time for yourself.

How much value do you place on your “free” time?

We’ve all opted, at one time or another, to hire people or engage services for everyday jobs we could do ourselves, but simply don’t want to. Services such as lawn care, house cleaning, catering, hair coloring or nail care are viewed by many of us as well worth the price tag. Sure, I could wash my own car, but I choose not to. Instead, I’ll pay to drive through a car wash or to get a professional manicure every so often, simply because I don’t want to do it myself.

After spending the better part of 15 years disputing, correcting and guarding my credit identity, I’ve come to the conclusion that a) I don’t want to do it myself anymore; and b) if I could hire someone else to do it –I would. I can’t imagine anyone who has spent the inordinate amount of time that I’ve spent cleaning up from a fraud or correcting negligent errors, not agreeing with this stance.

I’ve been adamantly and openly opposed to the various credit monitoring systems –most notably the systems shoved at consumers by the three major credit bureaus. They just don’t work when it comes to protecting your identity. Their services do not alert you if someone tries to open an account in your name, nor do they apprise you if someone used your name to commit a crime, or obtain a driver’s license. Our identities are so much more than what appears in our credit reports. Credit monitoring services are not preventive in their approach and for a variety of reasons – they just don’t work.

My identity is valuable to me and so is my time. I know that I have to be proactive if I want to ensure my identity remains just that...my identity. Since credit monitoring services are not the answer, and having determined that I simply don’t want to go it alone anymore, I set out to find and hire a service that would actually take on the responsibility of protecting my name.

Shortly after sending an email to a company called LifeLock, the CEO of LifeLock, Todd Davis contacted me. After a lengthy conversation with Mr. Davis, in which we discussed the vast amount of time it takes a victim to restore his or her identity once it has been stolen, he kindly offered me a free one-year subscription to LifeLock. “Try it out, Denise. After all you’ve been through it’s our gift to you,” he said. I thanked him, but turned down his generous offer because at the time, and not unlike other consumer advocates, I was a bit leery about hiring someone to do something I was more than used to doing and could do myself.

Until that is, the day I received an all too familiar phone call. It was the fraud department from one of my credit card companies, calling to alert me to yet another attempted fraud-one which they were able to thwart. In that brief moment, I realized that even though they were able to thwart that particular fraud attempt, they were not able to prevent what would inevitably come next –hours of “clean up” work I hadn’t planned on. I knew, from experience that I had to contact the Department of Motor Vehicles, obtain, review and monitor my credit card and bank accounts, place fraud alerts, and generally notify all of my creditors to ensure that no other accounts were successfully accessed by the same thief.

Yes, it is true that consumers can place their own fraud alerts on their credit reports. They can contact Chex systems too, and even opt out of pre-approved offers of credit to stop the bombardment of targeted mass marketing. Consumers can also mark their calendars to remind themselves to update their fraud alerts every 90 days or so. We can do this, but I don’t want to anymore – I quit!

Though many may feel that paying ten dollars a month (or a hundred dollars a year) is too much money for something you can do yourself, I view it differently. I prefer to see it as one of the many everyday jobs that I don’t want to do myself and would prefer paying someone else to do. I didn’t sign up for LifeLock’s services because I had a free offer –I signed up because I value my time – and my sanity, for that matter. With someone else guarding my identity –I might just have the time to wash my own car –but I’d rather not.

Please feel free to comment or email me your thoughts...

Check out this hilarious video that unfortunately is all too relatable! My wife the slave!

If you are would prefer to have someone else guard your credit, AND be there for you when an identity theft occurs, go to LifeLock.com, click on enroll and when asked for the promotional code type in denise
for an instant 20% discount -courtesy of Lifelock
promotional code: denise

Posted by Denise Richardson at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As the harmful effects of mortgage servicing fraud and corporate errors continue to devastate innocent families, there is finally some attention being focused on whether or not a small piece of legislation would greatly help us protect two of our biggest assets –our sanity and our homes.

I have been advocating a borrower’s right to gain access to a monthly mortgage statement to ensure borrowers can verify their loan payments are applied accurately, since discovering that my own mortgage was riddled with erroneous late fees and my additional payments earmarked for “extra principal payments” went unaccounted for -and undetected -for years.

Even though I had every cancelled check to prove my innocence, once this mess was detected, it didn’t matter...it took a court room battle and a decade of my life to sort it all out and correct their costly errors. These events prompted me to testify before a Massachusetts Senate banking committee armed with the support of many consumer nightmare stories back in the 90’s.

The support from the MA legislators and MA borrowers back then, resulted in the mega-banks voluntarily promising to supply consumers with monthly statements. Since then, I moved to Florida, bought a new home and took out a new mortgage. A few months down the road, along with that new mortgage came the frightening realization that I was once again forced to deal with a mortgage servicing company that didn't supply consumers with monthly statements. As predicted, without the aid of a monthly statement, more battles to correct misapplied and/or erroneously accounted for payments began to emerge.

If you think this can't happen to you because you pay your payments on time and you currently have access to a monthly statement, you need to re-think the reality of problem. If you sell or refinance your home or if your lender sells your mortgage –you may suddenly find you no longer receive a monthly accounting for your payments. We are all warned we need to be vigilant consumers when it comes to protecting our assets from predatory lenders and predatory servicers yet without having access to a monthly statement we are vulnerable and defenseless to do so and detect and prevent fraud.

It’s been a long, uphill battle trying to shed light on the importance of monthly mortgage statements, but it’s also important to note, many student loans and auto loans are handled with the same outdated coupon payment books that leave consumers in a position where they are forced to blindly trust their loan payments are accounted for accurately. Payment coupon books should be outlawed and consumers should receive a monthly accounting statement for all loan payments –it’s just common sense if we really want to thwart fraudulent behavior.

Jack Guttentag, a respected Professor of Finance Emeritus at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, published a recent article in the Seattle Times entitled

Predatory servicing deserves a cleanup!
In this article he supports mandating monthly statements and recites his opinion on what additional changes are called for.

"... Mandatory provision of complete and comprehensible monthly statement: The law should require servicers to provide easy-to-understand monthly statements showing every transaction during the month, including balance changes and their sources, payments, disbursements, rate adjustments and fees. Without this, predatory practices can go unnoticed by the borrower."

Professor Guttentag also has his own informative site. Here he responds to a consumer's question regarding the need for monthly statements.
Should all borrowers receive monthly statements?

"I noticed an on-line petition to require all mortgage lenders to provide borrowers with monthly statements of their account. Is this a good cause?"

Professor Guttentag's response..."Yes, because borrowers don’t choose the firm that services their mortgage, they can’t fire the firm for cause, and their existing legal protections are weak.
A law requiring servicers to provide monthly statements that update the account and explain all changes in it, will not eliminate servicing abuses, but it will help borrowers who are alert protect themselves...”
See his top six reasons why you need to know how your payments are applied.

If you support the simple premise that consumers should have access to monthly statements, please contact your legislators and ask for their support or take a moment and sign the petition and include your comments at petition in support of monthly statements.

Posted by Denise Richardson at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Many consumers have reported finding mass confusion when simply trying to claim their rights to obtain their free credit reports...the really, truly, honest to goodness totally free credit reports-...not the ones that are advertised as "free" but then require you to purchase something. Don't get taken while taking advantage of your right to an annual credit report. Knowledge is power and believe me, you need all the power you can get when it comes to the world of credit.
See Guard my credit file.org

Free Credit Reports - What You Need to Know!

ACCESS, American Consumer Credit Education Support Services, reports "Over the past three months, we've been bombarded by people saying that they believe the way to get a free copy of their credit report is by visiting FreeCreditReport.com. They are wrong!"

This issue is so important...

Posted by Denise Richardson at 07:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ConsumerAffairs.com reports that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) pledges to hold hearings to investigate the credit reporting industry. He has jumped into this New Year promising to look into why inaccurate credit reports are so hard to correct ,and why correcting inaccurate credit is so time-consuming and widespread.

For many years consumers have been used as unpaid, quality control experts charged with overseeing and maintaining a product (us) that they sell for profit. The lender points a finger of blame for damaging inaccuracies at the credit bureaus and the credit bureaus, in turn, place blame on the lender. While the blame game thrives, consumers are faced with higher interest rates and insurance premiums, denied loans and jobs. Equally as aggravating - it often takes years and countless attempts to remove erroneous information once it finds its way into your life.

It's not time to dance in the streets yet -but Rep. Frank has lit a small torch of hope that with any luck can spark a fire under those who have the ability and responsiblity to hold the credit industry accountable for ensuring their multi billion dollar industry sells a product that isn’t faulty.

Think about it...what other industry is allowed to sell a product on the market that requires the consumer to purchase it, inspect it, monitor it and fix it...at the consumer's expense?

See article By Martin H. Bosworth January 1, 2007

Rep. Frank Promises Hearings On Credit Bureaus
Consumers Complain of Delays in Correcting, Updating Credit Reports

Observers had predicted that reforming the credit industry would be a prime objective of the new Democratic Congress, and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is taking up the challenge.

Rep. Frank, the incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, says he will hold hearings in 2007 on how the credit bureaus can improve their reporting and error-correcting procedures. More...

Posted by Denise Richardson at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)