As many of you know, there is nothing that excites me more than being a great Dad (and no, I’m not there yet).
Just this weekend, I told my oldest daughter Ava that this was going to be “our” day, and I picked her up from school on Friday, and for the next 23 hours, it was just the two of us (with no brothers or sisters).
Many the ideas I get from Fathering come from what I have learned from other great dads… one of them is my close friend, Greg Hague.
Greg, like me is SO passionate about Fathering, that when he hears a story about a great Father, he writes about it and sends it out to everyone he knows.
These stories are touching, inspiring, and designed to make you think. Many times after reading one of his stories, I’ve though “I should do this with my kids.”
Over the months and years, he has written so many great stories, that he decided to put them all into a book.
If you want a great Father’s Day gift, I HIGHLY recommend you buy this book.
Young or old, your Father will be inspired by the stories in the book! And most likely, it will inspire him to be an even better Dad. 🙂
To buy printed version, click here.
To buy digital version, click here.
That is one thing the world needs… more Great Dads!
Have a great week!
Philip
P.S. If you order today or tomorrow, you will have the book by Sunday! You will thank me!
Author: Philip Tirone
3 Credit Scams That Are Hurting Your Credit Score
The Credit and Debt Summit is exposing one credit scam after another. This time, credit expert Brian Diez exposed three credit scams that could be hurting your credit score and your ability to secure a loan.
Are you a victim?
Here are the three scams:
Credit Scam #1: Lenders oversee themselves.
Lenders report information to the credit bureaus. If you submit a claim that disputes this information, guess who is responsible for verifying the information? Lenders.
Imagine that you were to file a lawsuit against a doctor. You arrive at court to prove your case, and the doctor is sitting on the jury responsible for deciding whether your case is valid.
Such is the system of repairing errors on a credit report.
Credit Scam #2: Lenders benefit from errors.
And it gets even worse. Lenders benefit from sloppy records. If a lender causes an error to appear on your credit report, your credit score could drop. In turn, the lender can charge you more in interest.
“This scam is propagated by a system that almost guarantees errors,” Diez told attendees at the Credit and Debt Summit. It works like this:
The computer systems that collect information from lenders and then report this information to the credit bureaus do not require an exact match. If a Social Security number matches a last name, the system considers it “good enough,” even if the first name and address don’t match.
You can see how easily a mistake can appear on your credit report. In fact, 44 percent of reports of identity theft are nothing more than a merged credit file.
Credit Scam #3: Unless you are a politician, celebrity, or attorney, your complaint will not be taken seriously.
Making matters worse, if you try to correct an error on your credit report, you will have to jump through hoops … unless you are “someone important.”
Let’s imagine that you are one of the many people with an error on your credit report. (About 80 percent of people have at least one credit report error.) You contact the lender to report the mistake. The lender tells you to send a letter, which you promptly drop in the mail.
If you are a celebrity, politician, or lawyer, your letter will be handled immediately. Otherwise, your letter will be sent through a computer system that is responsible with determining whether your complaint is frivolous. If the computer says the letter is frivolous, your complaint won’t even be processed.
If the computer decides that your complaint has merit, your letter will be outsourced to Costa Rica, the Philippines, India, or Jamaica. A foreigner who most likely speaks English as a second language will be responsible for reading your letter and assigning a two-digit code, which determines the next action that should be taken on your complaint. Now a computer will spit out a letter telling you what will happen next.
Instead of doing actual research, Diez says the lenders just take the easy way out. So unless you are a celebrity, lawyer, or politician, you will be treated like a commoner. The worst part, your credit score just keeps dropping.
What if…, by 720 Credit Score
What if… today was THE day.
Today was the day when you stopped worrying about that thing that has been nagging you all year.
Today was the day when you realized that the struggles you have been going through have been blessings in disgu
ise… and now, the blessings are filling your heart with joy.
Today is the day that you will look back with immense gratitude, as this was YOUR day.
Today is the day to feel blessed, because 2013 is going to be unlike any other year of your life.
Are you ready for it?
This is YOUR year!
This year is going to be easier for you and your family.
This is the year you will have the breakthrough you wanted financially.
This is the year that the pain you feel… will be taken away from you.
Together, let’s all come together and me 2013 the best years of our life. That’s what I’m going to do… will you come with me?
Post any thoughts below.
With all our love… have a Merry Christmas, and if you don’t celebrate Christmas, have a wonderful Holiday!
To an awesome 2013,
Philip, Lily, Ava, Dominic, Lucas and Emma
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Super Bowl ticket give-a-way…
As you know, I’m a BIG fan of being a father, so naturally … I’m very involved with the National Center for Fathering and learning about “Championship Fathering.”
I wanted to let you know that the Center is raising awareness of fathering by giving away two tickets to the Super Bowl to a father and his lucky son or daughter!
Do you know a great father who would like to know about this?
If yes, please send this to him! Or, if you are a father, you can enter the contest yourself …
- Like the National Center for Fathering’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/NCF4dads
- Submit your email address to receive exact rules and regulations.
It’s that easy!
Please send this to any GREAT DADS who love football!
– Philip Tirone
Have You Been Scammed or Ripped Off? How to Get Help and Get The Problem Resolved
If you feel like a company you paid for a service has not delivered the best place to start to attempt to resolve the issue is to contact the company directly. If you’ve tried repeatedly to get your issue resolved by sending an email or leaving voice mail and that’s not getting any attention, send a letter by some traceable means that provides you with proof of delivery. A signature or name of who signed for it is even more beneficial.
The least expensive service to use of to send your letter through the post office by certified mail, return receipt requested. When the letter is signed for you will get back a green postcard showing when it was received and who signed for it. You may also decide to send your letter by FedEx or some other express mail service to get additional attention.
Keep the return receipt postcard or some other delivered proof with a copy of the letter you sent in a safe place. You’ll probably need it later if you have to escalate your dispute.
In your letter give the company 14 days to respond, keep a friendly tone, and state what your issue is and the resolution you would like to receive. There is no need to be mean or nasty in this letter.
Let the company know that if they fail to respond you will escalate the matter to state and federal officials but you want to come to a win-win outcome that is good for both you and reasonable for the company.
Sometimes a company will come back with a refund offer to help remedy the dispute. While the refund offer may not be for the full amount you feel you deserve, only you can determine if the partial refund provides you with a satisfactory outcome and not left feeling cheated.
You don’t have to accept less than you are owed but there must be a cost-benefit determination to figure out if more time, pressure, and escalation on your part is going to result in a better outcome for you.
If the company does not respond or you feel it is insufficient you can escalate your claim to your State Attorney General, the Better Business Bureau, your local consumer affairs office or other enforcement office. You can find a listing of all consumer protection offices online here.
If you’ve been ripped off or have a complaint about a company that has taken your money or made you promises for a loan or was selling you some money saving service, credit repair, or debt help and just hasn’t delivered there are plenty of places to file a complaint in hopes of getting help.
But you may want to consider wiling an online report using the scam report and consumer complaint submission form.
This free service is unique as compared to other online complaint portals in that it companies that are the subject of a filed complaint are contacted and asked to respond directly to your complaint.
The goal of a consumer complaint using this service is to create a conduit for a solution and the problem being resolved.
Without a doubt the effective route to a resolution is to be levelheaded, persistent, and do what you can to work with the company first. Give them a chance to do the right thing. Your documentation that you tried and they did not want to assist you in resolving the dispute will come in handy if you later file your complaint elsewhere.
While this guide is written more for people that feel cheated by a debt relief company, the detailed step-by-step refund directions are still good for almost any dispute.
Author: This article was contributed by GetOutOfDebt.org, a site that provides free help for people looking for advice on how to get out of debt or getting out of debt.
Source: Have You Been Scammed or Ripped Off? How to Get Help and Get The Problem Resolved.
Banking Scams: How Banks Are Legally Stealing Your Money and What You Can Do About It
The down economy has hurt more than just general public – banks are feeling the pinch as well. In an effort to generate extra income, they’ve become quite creative and sneaky in their tactics. We refer to these at 720CreditScore.com as banking scams. They are the ways banks “legally steal” from you month after month, most times without you even realizing it.
Whether you want to hear it or not, the truth is that the banks are in bed with the government and although the government tells the banks to “treat people fairly,” they continue to steal your money, while greedily taking money from you (via the government and your tax dollars) at the same time.
To spread the message and help people avoid these banking scams, we’re inviting everyone to share their stories of banking scams that may have happened to you. The goal is to make the public aware of what’s really going on so you can protect your hard-earned money. A few dollars here and there may not seem like much, but when you add up the thousands of accounts they are doing this to, you can see how much banks depend on these banking scams.
This is an important issue that we believe strongly about and we greatly appreciate your time in sharing your scam. If you don’t have a story to share, take a few minutes and read through the scams to make sure you don’t become a victim, or share this page with others who you think will benefit from the information.
To make it easier to find your story, if you’re sharing a scam please start your comment with the words “BANKING SCAM.”
If you have a facebook account, post this via the Facebook Comments below so we can get this message out!
In the spirit of sharing, here is one that happened to me recently.
US Bank: BANKING SCAM
If this isn’t a scam from US Bank, I’m not sure what is.
Last week I was helping my Mother in Law close out her lease with US Bank, she owed the final payment of $395, so I called to pay it.
Before they collected the payment, I told the US Bank Representative that my Mother just moved from California to Arizona eight weeks ago. She gladly took the information and then told me that she will have to charge my credit card $405 instead of $395. I asked, “Why?.”
Well, I found out that it is US Bank’s policy to charge an extra $10 fee for billing addresses in Arizona. Interesting.
Hmmm… I have clients all over the world and it doesn’t cost me extra money to charge a person’s credit card in Arizona vs. California. Even if it did, NO WAY it would be $10. And, even if I were charged extra, I wouldn’t even think about passing that on to the client.
Here I am, five days after this happened blogging about this US Bank Scam… to my entire client base. These companies need to start focusing on building more value to their clients instead of penny pinching all of us.
Here is how I got around the $10 scam. I told her to change my address back to the California address and rerun it. I told her, “If you charge me the $10 fee, I refuse to pay the bill.” She changed the address, I saved $10, and I’m not using US Bank again!
Share your Scam!!
Philip Tirone is a Credit Scoring Expert and Champion for the Human Race
Other Scam Posts:
The Retail Store Credit Card Scam – Click to Read
The Dirty Little Secret that Hurts Credit – Click to Read
Protecting Yourself from Common Bankruptcy Scams – Click to Read
Sands Tourism Sent Me Two Scratch Off Tickets and Say I'm a Winner. Is This a Scam? – Luena
“Dear Steve,
I received an envelope thru my post office box, front of the envelope no name only our mailing address which is PO. Box etc… as I open this envelope it was promotional brochure from sandstourism on their 9th anniversary and there is a 2 scratch and win promo ticket which I scratch the first one it said “thank you” and the second ticket I scratch ” 2nd prize USD 160,000.00 so I called the number on the brochure to claim the prize.
When I’m claiming my prize they told me to scanned the promo ticket so they can verified the bar codes if its valid. they call me personally that the ticket is valid so they asked me a clients#. which I don’t have.. meaning in order for you get this client number you have be a member on this company (hondings) they are investor in Hongkong.
so they research my name if I’m one of the investor in this company which my name did not show. so they called me again telling me because I’m not a n investor i may not be qualified to get the prize they told the major prize is hold for the investor and I ask them if this ticket is hold for one of the investor why did i get this in my mail?
they answer it got mixed up when they in put the promo ticket they accident put on my box number.. so i fight for it i told them no one can claim this ticket accept for me because i have the original ticket after how many days they called me that the company decided to grant the prize to me.. the company holding called me today for verification, and read me a letter of authorization of Hongkong in short ” in order for the company to release this big amount of money need to go in court for legal documentation they asking me a security deposit $3336.04, which after I received my prize they will reimburse the $3260.04, the $100.00 is process fee. I’ve been communicating them for 1 week I called them or they will call me.
should I send them the money? what if this is a scammed? How would i find out if this is a scammed?
Luena”
Dear Luena,
No need to do any more research, it’s a scam.
They are trying to con you to put up thousands of dollars in hopes of getting a big payday. It’s an age old scam. You dangle a big prize out there and make the victim think they only have to invest X to get Y. It seems like a variation of the Nigerian Oil scam.
If you would like to report the mailing, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service online, click here.
Save your money.
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
Big Hug!
@GetOutOfDebtGuy
Author: This article was contributed by GetOutOfDebt.org, a site that provides free help for people looking for advice on how to get out of debt or getting out of debt.
Source: Sands Tourism Sent Me Two Scratch Off Tickets and Say I’m a Winner. Is This a Scam? – Luena
How to Get Business Credit
I learned a ton of great information from Tom Kish about how to get business credit during Week Two of the Credit and Debt Summit.
How to Get Business Credit
Tom Kish is the author of Shortcuts to Money, and he’s one of our experts at the Credit and Debt Summit. Basically, Tom teaches people how to get business credit, and then he teaches them how to use it to expand their businesses.
Here are three highlights:
The first secret about how to get business credit is this: Don’t apply in your own name. A lot of entrepreneurs walk into a bank and fill out a business loan application using their own name. Kish says the banks will basically laugh in your face if you do this.
Banks want to do business with LLCs, S-Corps, and C-Corps. Banks know that corporations might buy insurance products through the bank, they might build investment accounts or retirement accounts, or they might process their merchant services through the bank.
And being a sole proprietor—even one with a Fictitious Business Names or “DBA”—just doesn’t cut it, says Kish.
But if you register your business as a corporation or formal partnership, the banks will practically salivate at your door.
The second secret about how to get business credit is this: Keep your personal credit score high. A lot of lenders will look at the owner or principal’s credit score when considering a loan application.
This doesn’t mean that you should apply for business credit under your own name. Once again, you absolutely should not. It does, however, mean that your personal credit score might be considered as part of the overall process.
So if you have a bad credit score, be sure you know how to build credit. Namely, get your outstanding debt as low as you can, pay your bills on time, and scour your credit report for errors. (Be sure to come back later for some hot information from Brian Diez about errors on your credit report!)
And the third secret I’ll share is this: Apply for more than one loan. Let’s say you have a business registered as a corporation and you want a $150,000 line of credit. Instead of applying for one big loan, try breaking it into three or four loans that add up to $150,000.
You will have much more success if you start by looking for a bank that will provide you with $30,000 or $40,000 line of credit. Once you secure this loan, apply for another one. And then another.
Heck if you are just getting started, apply for a $5,000 line of credit. Get your foot in the door and get the ball rolling.
One thing you should know about how to get business credit is that getting the first loan is always the hardest step, especially if you don’t have any assets or much history. Look for a bank that provides “stated income” loans that are unsecured. This means that you won’t have to provide tax returns, collateral, or a business plan.
A Holiday, Charge-Card Reminder …
Just a quick reminder…
Don’t get carried with your credit cards when shopping for holiday presents. Remember that one of the keys to a high credit score is to keep a balance that is no higher than 30 percent of the limit.
This means that if you have a $2,000 limit, your balance should not exceed $600.
Ever. Not even for one day. Even if you pay your bill in full each month.
You see, 30 percent of your credit score is based on your outstanding debt. And in large part, your outstanding debt includes something called the “utilization rate,” which is your balance as a percentage of your limit.
Credit bureaus give higher scores to people with low utilization rates, and they give lower scores to people with high utilization rates.
So keeping the right credit card balance is one of the most important things you can do this holiday season to protect your credit score.
For more ideas, be sure to download my free holiday booklet about saving money during the holidays, preventing the retail store scams, and protecting your credit score.
– Philip Tirone
The tale of the envelope, by 720 Credit Score
With Christmas just a couple of weeks away, I wanted to share this tip for protecting your wallet when you hit the malls.
I call it the “envelope system.” It works like this:
1. First, create a holiday spending budget. I know a lot of parents who want to create lasting memories for their children, so they go overboard, buying tons of presents for their kids.
But think back to your own childhood. How many gifts are etched into your memory?
Probably not many. Your children will remember the time they spend with you more than the gifts they will receive.
And if you are racking up your credit card bills, you probably feel stress and anxiety, which will detract from the time you spend with your children.
So create a reasonable budget, determining how much you can afford to spend on each person on your list.
2. Leave the credit cards and debit cards at home.
I’m totally serious about this. If you don’t take credit cards or debit cards, you cannot overspend. It’s that simple.
If you do take credit cards and debit cards, you can. So just leave them at home.
The more radical this idea sounds to you, the more important it is that you implement it.
Taking credit cards with you is just too tempting, even to the most disciplined shopper. The allure of “buy now, pay later” will allow you to make impulse purchases.
If you take only cash, on the other hand, you will limit your spending to the cash in hand. Those impulse purchases will be impossible.
3. Create “wallets.”
This is where my “envelope system” comes into play …
Before jumping in your car and hitting the local mall, pull out some plain white envelopes and write the name of each person you are going to purchase a present for on individual envelopes. (If you have eight people to buy presents for, you should have eight envelopes.)
Within each envelope, place the appropriate amount of cash you have budgeted for this person—no more and no less.
Each of these envelopes represents the wallet you have for each person on your list.
You might want to bring a little extra money for lunch, but be sure to leave your credit and debit cards at home.
When you purchase a present, use the money from the appropriate “wallet.”
This method will create a psychological barrier to impulse shopping. If you are tempted to splurge on a gift, you will be dissuaded when you consider whose wallet you will withdraw money from in order to cover the impulse shopping.
What do you think? Does this help you avoid the “holiday credit card hangover”? Leave a comment below and let me know.
Cheers!
Philip Tirone
P.S. You can use this tip for other events: birthdays, anniversaries, and other events that call you to the mall!
