Check Your Free Credit Report!

I recently received a letter from BNY Mellon Shareowner Services, a company I've used for Dividend Reinvestment Plans or DRIPS's as they're called in the Wall Street world. The letter alerted me to the fact that some backup data tapes had been lost during a transfer to an off-site storage facility. These tapes contained some of my personal data such as name, address and Social Security #. While Mellon claimed they did not believe my data would be accessed or misused (not sure how they determined this), they extended the offer to all those impacted to receive 3 free months of a credit-monitoring service. This would safeguard people from potential identity theft, by allowing them to monitor the credit reporting agency's data on them, just in case you started seeing strange credit card charges for thousands of dollars from a strip joint that you didn't make...ok, bad example but you catch my drift...

One of the biggest concepts in becoming wealthy or "getting ahead" is not only knowing where your money is coming from, but also knowing where it's going to. That means the tedious task of figuring out all your monthly bills/expenses and other "money-takers", so you know exactly what sort of spending you're doing. Another thing we all neglect to do thinking we're all good, is checking out or credit report on a regular basis. Some avoid them out of shear terror, while others just assume everything is going alright. Your credit is a big deal though especially with the recent mortgage foreclosure and bank scrutiny against loans. Financial pundit Suze Orman says you'll need an even better credit score than before to even be considered for a new home loan. And as you can see from my brief tale above, identity theft is definitely a big thing to watch for these days. There's all sorts of Paypal, eBay, banking and credit card scams and phishing going on online. Also when data's lost or your social security number is taken, that can spell potential trouble. We've all seen the commercials about the guy who has to work in a seaside fish restaurant because his identity was stolen. He recommends in his catchy tune that you get your free credit report. According to the letter I receieved from BNY Mellon, you can check your report free of charge once every 12 months.

To get yourself a free copy of your credit report simply visit http://www.annualcreditreport.com. Check it out, see the good, the bad and possibly the ugly. It will take about 7 years to fix some of the worst mistakes such as late payments made to credit cards, but you can get a good idea of how you rank credit-wise and insure that nothing malicious is going on behind your back.

Entrecard Forum, Approvals & Top Droppers

Yep, in case you forgot about it, the Entrecard website and blog advertising universe still exists! A few days ago they released a monumental announcement via email that they have opened up a new forum per the request of members. This forum will be more like other forums you're accustomed to, and will allow post signatures (hint hint - a new place to link build). Hopefully the new forums will allow great discussions amongst the blogging community and a place to link exchange.

Another announcement Entrecard made is regarding blog submission and approval. From now on they become stricter in terms of which blogs they allow, because they're using a manual approval process. There's also a "quality control" procedure going on to check the current blogs which are using Entrecard.

"Top Droppers Day" which will be a new Entrecard holiday on January 31st. That Saturday you can participate in the holiday by doing either of the following:

1.) Write a post thanking your top droppers! From your Entrecard Statistics page you can see a list of the 10 bloggers who have dropped their card for you the most times in the last 30 days. Writing a post thanking them, linking to them, and writing a nice compliment about their blog is a great way to reward them for being loyal visitors.

2.) Drop!! Because so many people in Entrecard are participating in Top Dropper Day this month, the chances that bloggers will link to you increases dramatically. Dropping is a great way to earn credits and drive traffic to your blog, and this month it's going to help you get links from other bloggers too. So drop frequently and often for the greatest rewards!

I'll be the first to admit Entrecard started out as a fun tool to use but it's sort of taken a back burner at times to other blogging tasks. It's a great tool for those just starting up a blog though, and also a fantastic place to network and find out tips from other bloggers. If you're just getting into blogging head over to Entrecard.com to get yourself a free account.

2009 Inauguration Ticket Ceremony!

Today marks a great day in American history with the official inauguration of Barack Obama, our 44th president and first ever African-American president. The inauguration ceremony itself was a grand affair in Washington, DC with everyone from John Kerry to the Clintons, Bushes and Carters coming to see Obama officially take office. And there were "common folk" spectators on hand as well as there were 240,000 free tickets given out to lucky individuals and families. They estimated that many more than that number attended the event.

While inauguration tickets were free that didn't prevent many entrepreneurial-minded individuals from scalping theirs. eBay and StubHub were outlawed from allowing sales of the inauguration tickets. According to WashingtonTimes.com:

Inauguration-related tickets have become such a hot commodity that people have gone to the Web to buy and sell them.

However, the Internet sites eBay and StubHub have decided not to help broker tickets at the request of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat and chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Mrs. Feinstein introduced legislation, passed by the Senate Tuesday, to make scalping of inauguration tickets a criminal offense. Passage by the House before the inauguration is uncertain.

Interestingly, this eBay auction here was for an offical Obama inauguration T-Shirt plus 2 "free" tickets to the swearing-in ceremony. The shirt sold for $699. So technically that person made the smart sale, side-stepping the scalping concept. See the completed auction here.

Not only were inauguration tickets a hot seller but so were any other event nearby the inauguration such as a Jay-Z concert on 1/19 and a Gala ball featuring singer Rihanna. There were even inauguration invite letters and subway tickets which pictured Obama selling on eBay.

Check out the numerous eBay listings here

Read more about the 2009 inauguration tickets at WashingtonTimes.com.

Circuity City Officially Closing!

An ailing economy strikes again, and this time levels one of the most well-known names in electronics retailers. Circuit City officially announced on Friday that they will be shutting down all stores, and in the process liquidating all merchandise in those stores. There's approximately 34, 000 employees for the retail stores across the United States, all of whom will soon be jobless. There's a 60 day notice for all employees losing jobs and anyone dismissed earlier receives pay and benefits for that 2 months. The retail chain cites the bleak economy and challenges to their business as reasons they will need to liquidate all store items in order to pay creditors. Hopes for emerging from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy have been squashed for the company which has existed for 60 years.

As for the liquidation sales, those start at many stores on Saturday, January 17, 2009. If you've been mulling over getting a new piece of electronics such as a Blu-Ray DVD player, LCD HDTV or new laptop, this just may be your opportunity. The Circuit City website reveals no details of any of the clearance deals, so you'll need to stop in and check out your local stores. CircuitCIty.com has more details, in fact that's all it has now, a page of text discussing the store's closing.

See all the details about Circuit City's closing here.