Assessing the Damage After Your Identity Has Been Stolen

The Traveler’s Guide to Preventing Identity Theft offered by Guest Door is a wonderful resource with many hints that can help you prevent identity theft. If you travel frequently, or you’re concerned about protecting your identity while you’re out and about, you should read over this info. But what do you do if your identity is stolen?

You get that dreaded phone call: there’s been suspicious activity on your credit card and your bank wants to know if you've been engaging in a spending spree. You’re shocked and appalled. Your identity has been stolen and you've got to act quickly if you want to protect yourself from additional theft and damage.

You’re understandably overwhelmed. What do you do? You want to figure out how this has happened. There are a few steps you’re going to have to take to protect your wallet and your credit:

Contact Equifax, Experian, or Transunion Immediately

You’re going to have to place a fraud alert on your credit report. You won’t have to call all three. Once you contact one agency, they’ll inform the others. They’ll also be sending you a copy of your credit report for you to review. Fraud alerts are extremely important because it requires companies to verify your identity before issuing a line of credit in your name. This will prevent thieves from opening any more new accounts in your name.

Contact Creditors Right Away

If the perpetrators have opened new accounts, contact those creditors and notify them of fraudulent activity. The accounts will be closed and you’ll have to fill out a fraud affidavit. If accounts that you opened have been compromised contact those creditors and let them know your identity has been stolen. The accounts will be closed and you’ll be able to review any charges to determine what activity has been taking place.

Contact Local Authorities

The next step is to contact local authorities and alert them to fraud. A detective will be assigned to your case and you can ask for any details about the charges. You’ll want to let them know what was spent and how your identity was stolen. When you finish providing information to the police, be sure to write down the case number and detective’s name. You’ll have to include this information on any fraud affidavits.

File a Complaint with the FTC

You’ll also need to notify the Federal Trade Commission by calling 1877-IDTHEFT.
Change all Online Passwords

You’ll want to change all your online passwords. The thieves may have acquired information from one of your accounts. Additionally, this may be inconvenient, but you should never store passwords online or on your computer.

Always Keep Records

You’ll want to keep updated records throughout the process. You should keep up with details of your dealings with any creditors, companies, and detectives. You should always write down the name of anyone you speak with, their title, the company they work for, the date, and time as well as a short summary of the discussion you had.

You’ll need to keep all this information in one location that is safe. It’s evidence that you will need later. You might find yourself being diligent initially, but important information may surface later. You need to track everything until all of your disputes are resolved.

Identity theft shouldn't ruin your life or your credit if you can manage to stay calm, be organized and take those first crucial steps involved in resolving any issues. You can bounce back from this stressful situation and you can stop those identity thieves right in their tracks. It might be tough initially, but it’s not an impossible situation.

Author Bio:

If you are still curious on what more steps to take in preventing identity theft, you can visit GuestDoor. You can also visit Traveler's Guide to Preventing Identity Theft.  

Start Filing Your Tax Return With These 6 Steps

IRS Form W-9 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Neda Jafarzadeh, a financial analyst with NerdWallet Investing. NerdWallet helps consumers make better financial decisions and compare total costs to find the best broker for their needs. 

If you haven’t already started preparing your 2012 tax returns, you will want to get started as the April 15th deadline is fast approaching. To get started, consider the following six tips: 

Tip 1: Know If You Need to File

If you aren’t sure whether you need to be filing a tax return for 2012, the IRS has a page that helps you decide whether or not you need to be filing. If you’ve decided that you do not need to file a tax return, keep in mind that you won’t be able to take advantage of the various credits that would otherwise be available to you. For example, if you made less than $50,270 in 2012, you may quality for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), or if you were a college student in 2012 or your dependent was a student, you may be eligible to receive the American Opportunity Tax Credit. 

Tip 2: Taxable vs. Nontaxable Income

While most types of earned income is subject to taxation, other types such as child support payments, gifts, inheritances and welfare benefits, are not. In addition, keep in mind that if you received a refund, credit or offset from the state, you may be required to include that as income even if you did not receive a Form 1900-G. To learn more about what income is subject to taxation, check Publication 525 on the IRS page. 

Tip 3: Finding Forms and Publications

There are numerous ways you can get the forms you need to file your tax return. One way is it get the forms online or by phone if you call 1-800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676) between 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Monday through Friday and request that they be mailed to you. You can even find the forms at your local post office or public library. 

Tip 4: Don’t Get Scammed

Tax scams are more common than you might think and the IRS has gone to great lengths to educate the public on recognizing and reporting these scams. If you aren’t sure whether you’ve fallen victim to a scam, the IRS has set up case scenarios to help you identify common scams, usually involving phone scams or identity theft. If you know you have fallen victim to a scam, you can use Form 3949-A to report it to the IRS. 

Tip 5: Get Help

If you are planning on using a DIY tax software, make sure you read customer reviews for the tool to see if your needs will be appropriately satisfied. NerdWallet also ran a comparison of the top two softwares available H&R Block and TurboTax, so feel free to reference that resource as well. If you plan to hire a professional tax preparer, do check his qualifications by asking for his Preparer Tax Identification Numbers (PTIN). 

Tip #6: Use Tax Credits Available to Parents

If you are a parent, be sure to look into the tax credits that are available to you like the Child and Dependent Tax Credit. You should be eligible to receive this credit if you have a child under the age of 13 and had to pay for a caretaker while you went to work or while you looked for work.

Top 100 Finance Blogs To Follow in 2013

Here's a list of the top finance blogs to follow in 2013. I'm proud to be on it. I know a lot of these blogs but many I don't. I will be checking a few out, why don't you do likewise. Thanks Couponaudit.com.
 
An infographic by the team at Couponaudit.com
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Guide for Freelancers: Working with Difficult People while Avoiding Problematic Scenarios

Facing daily challenges is not as difficult as dealing with people with problems. This article will help in explaining how to deal with difficult clients and how to handle their questions and reactions. 

Difficulty in Dealing:

Following are explained some reasons of why the freelancers perceive some clients as difficult:

• Communication Style Differences. Communication is the medium through which the complexity of any client can be predicted. Some people feel more comfortable in any type of communication medium. Some uses email, phone calls, chat or face to face meeting. The difficult people find a way in any type of medium to irritate the employer. 
• Knowledge Based Differences. Not everyone can understand everything and not everyone knows everything. Freelancers have to guide the client with proper knowledge and make him understand things he does not perceive correctly. Sometimes the client offers low price for large amount of work, for this freelancer have to elaborate the price scheme so that he understands the amount of efforts required. 
• Life Experiences’ Differences. It’s virtually impossible for a person to acknowledge what the other person has in mind and what he/she is going through unless he/she share. It’s an important note to memorize that mostly people have diverse behaviors in the stressed situations. 

Salvage Relationships:

The first choice for a freelancer should be to salvage the relationship if the client is difficult. If the reasons have been identified of client being difficult, proper steps should be taken in dealing and correcting the relationship. It can either be adjusting the way freelancers operate or by swallowing their pride. Below are various specific steps which could be taken for resolving the specific problems:

• Communication Style Differences. Communication is the medium through which the complexity of any client can be predicted. 
• Knowledge Based Differences. Not everyone can understand everything and not everyone knows everything. Freelancers have to guide the client with proper knowledge and make him understand things he does not perceive correctly. 
• Life Experiences’ Differences. It’s virtually impossible to acknowledge what other people are going through unless they speak of their problems. It’s an important note to remember that most of the people have diverse behavior in stressed out situations. 

Time of Ignoring People with Problems:

Salvaging the relationship with a difficult person is generally considered as best option. There might come some times when it’s best to ignore difficult person. Usually it’s preferable to ignore difficult people to avoid any irritation in work. For instance, if the client is asking for status reports on daily basis, it must be annoying but providing them with the reports. 

Last Resort:

Last resort for a freelancer is to cut off the difficult person from the work entirely. One should go for such act after much thinking because one it is done, it can’t be undone. Ending the relationship should be made if there is not step or chance of reconciliation left.

Author Bio:

Austin Richard is an IT professional from prepnerds. Are you really looking for Prepnerds.com Assistance? Take the benefit of Apple Certification Exams and pass your exam easily.