Unsolicited Pre-approved Credit Cards
Are you one of many receiving unsolicited "pre-approved" credit card offers in your mail? What do we do with them all?
If you are looking for a credit card, this may be a relatively easy way to get one. But, don't be fooled by the words, "Pre-Approved". You still have to submit an application for evaluation before you receive the card. Also, see our Reference Library article entitled, "Credit Card Shopping Checklist" to make the best decision.
Caution: Don't be lured into another credit card if you already have reached limits or have unpaid balances on your existing cards. Even if you get approval for this card, It will further damage your credit rating and dig your financial troubles even deeper. Credit card companies make most of their money from your finance charges and they are happyt when you are paying high-interest on unpaid balances.
To learn more about protecting your personal interests in the use of credit cards, see articles in our Reference Library entitled, "How to Make Credit Cards work for You" and "Make Credit Card an Asset".
Unsolicited Pre-approved Credit Cards
These unsolicited credit card offers arrive because your name is constantly being sold by one company to another. The credit bureaus sell lists of potential names to credit card or loan companies, and every time you buy something, your name gets onto some list that may be bought or sold. The result, in general, is "junk mail".
If you are not interested in these offers, you may simply throw them away, but either shred or tear up the information before tossing into the trash. If you find this really irritating, you may call toll-free 1-888-5OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) to get your credit file blocked from being sold by the credit bureaus.
visit www.parkavecredit.com for more info
Unsolicited Pre-approved Credit Cards
What is the best way to setup a payment arrangment with the collections agency?
I had a part-time home based business and owe $1,200 on an office supply store credit card. The company actually closed my account even though I was not late on my payment. I hadn’t been doing business in quite some time and the bill ended up in an outside collections agency.
I received a letter from them in August and received phone calls from them on a daily basis. There was an agent assigned to my account, but now it’s been passed along to just anyone who answers the phone. I contacted them last week to discuss setting up a payment arrangment. They claim $50 is the minimum amount they can take, and they want it setup by using a checking account.
I told them I could not afford $50 per month at this time, but would be willing to pay something. After arguing with the agent for 20 minutes or so, I told him I’d call back early this week to see what I could do. He kept mentioning that the credit reviews the accounts twice a month and will pull the account if they see they’re not getting paid.
So I figured I could afford $30 to $35 per month at this point. I called and the agent I’d previously spoken to was not available. I spoke to someone else. I explained, again, that I am not working so they wanted to “update” my information. They wanted to know my husband’s name and his employer. My husband was not involved with the business at all and I don’t want him to be tied up in it. They claim tha since I’m not working they need to know how I will pay.
She also said just sending in payments won’t secure anything unless it’s with a checking account. She put me on hold and said neither her or her supervisor had the authorization to let me pay $30 to $35 per month. She suggested I leave a message for the agent I initially spoke to last week. I need to know the best approach to get an arrangment without giving them my bank account information.
By the way, I used my tax id number to open this account. I never put my social security number down anywhere on the application as I didn’t want to personally guarantee the line of credit. They have somehow pulled my personal credit and can see that most of my primary accounts (mortgage, car, personal credit cards) are being paid.
Is this legal? I live in Texas.
NEVER give out your checking account/bank routing numbers to debt collectors for making electronic debit payments. This is like giving the keys to your front door to a burglar. Once they have this info they can attempt to withdraw any amount from your checking account at any time. For collection agents who are desperately trying to make a quota and/or sales commission, it’s simply too tempting to take more money out of your account. This always leads to an avalanche of bounced check fees. Pay only via USPS money orders.
- Debt collectors do have the right to refuse a payment plan that is too small
- If they keep making an issue of wanting your checking account numbers, tell them that you are officially documenting that they are refusing payment by a legal method (USPS money orders) and that you will be sending a certified letter to them as documentation.
It is this easy. The federal government wants money. The federal government takes money. The federal government allows people outside (or inside) the US to file taxes, as all income earned in US (whether by citizen or non-resident alien) is taxable. For example, a portion of the income of a canadian who does busniess in the us is subject to US income tax.
This does not mean anything. It is the law. If you earn income in US, you must pay income tax (even if you do not qualify for benefits you are paying for). The tax return is also required. Of course, if you do not get file a return, you cannot get a refund (most people over-withhold). The government is only entitled to the proper amount of taxes, whether the person is a citizen, an alien, or an illegal resident.
Hope this helps.
Incidentally, the IRS will give a non-citizen a taxpayer identifcation number that does not require a social security number. Still, the worker has SS and medicare taxes taken out, even though they will never collect.
Countrywide Mortgage refuses to correct my social security number on file?
Short of contacting Consumer Affairs….I have received a letter from Countrywide Mortgage informing me and the millions of others that hold a mortgage with them, that an ex-employee stole the personal information of their mortgagee’s (namely me and millions of others) and that they were going to offer a free 2 year credit monitoring to make sure that my identity isn’t used other than by me. My wife is on the account with me and when she called to confirm information regarding the letter, they asked her for the last four digits of her social security number to speak to them…she gave it, yet they had a 6 in place of an 8 on file. Well, we hold two different mortgages with them on two different properties, so she asked them to check the other account and that one was correct. Countrywide insisted that the originating documentation was incorrect when my wife signed it, but we checked our mortgage documents and the W9; the Form 4506 Request for Copy or Transcript of Tax Form; and the Uniform Residential Loan Application were all correct. Countrywide employee input the information incorrectly on the one mortgage. Now they are asking her to send them in the mail a copy of her social security card, a copy of her photo id and a new signed W9. We refuse to also put my wifes information at risk. I asked them, if I were to die and my wife needed to do some readjustments to the mortgage, would she be able to? They clearly said: NO, but what I didn’t ask them was…if I died would my wife still be liable for the mortgage since their identifying information for my wife is incorrect? I wouldn’t think so. Question is: What would you do and how would you correct this problem without putting further personal information at risk?
Further, I did receive a hard letter, not an email. From that I contacted the number directly on my billing statement to confirm the account number. Additionally, I did go back to my original closing documents and they were correct, as also stated by the phone representative, but they claimed that since they had this ex-employee steal information they no longer will correct things over the phone. I know they had an input error, they know it’s an input error, yet they won’t budge. I will persistantly contact them every week until I get an opportunity to discuss this with someone further up the chain, although they tell you they’ll pass you to a supervisor and only give you yet another phone rep! Frustrated, which is why I thought Consumer Affairs should be notified…or someone else???
I also asked them if they ever do audit’s to confirm that the person inputting documentation did it correctly, clearly they don’t!
Scot: I have a letter from Countrywide to prove that they DID ask for a copy of my actual social security card, but I’m not stupid which is why I’m fighting my way to the top of their heap to get this resolved! Thanks
Suspicious e-mail about tax over payments refund?
Here’s the contents of the e-mail I received:
Dear Applicant:
Following an upgrade of our computer systems and review of our records we have investigated your payments and latest tax returns over the past years, our calculations show you have made over payments of 326.75$
Due to the high volume of refunds you must complete the online application, the telephone help line is unable to assist with this application.
In order to process your refund you will need to complete the attached application form.
Your refund may take up to 6 weeks to process please make sure you complete the form correctly.
As we are upgrading our records we require the completed form showing your full current details before 20 March 2010
Please submit the form attached to confirm the refund.
Note: If you are using Internet Explorer please allow ActiveX for scripts to perform all data transfers securely .
S. M.Roberts
Senior Manager
Internal Revenue Service
————————————–…
© Copyright 2010, Internal Revenue Service US All rights reserved.
TAX REFUND ID: A29R119
I found it suspicious becasue
1: The dollar sign is in a wrong place.
2: It attaches an online document, when I click it, it links to an IRS.gov site, on the top of the site, it says: Please enter your Info and the Debit Card where refunds will be made. And the form is called Refund Payment Form.
3: there are other icons I can click on them too, like contact IRS, About IRS, Individuals, Business, and so on, but the page stays the same, still not leaving the refund form page.
4: it asks for SSN, Mother maiden name, credit card #, ATM PIN #, Bank account #, Issuing Bank.
Is it a spam mail, a fraud?
The IRS will NEVER contact you by e-mail. EVER! The IRS makes initial contact on any tax matters via USPS First Class mail.
Forward the e-mail to: phishing@irs.gov
BTW, when an e-mail tells you to enable ActiveX or Java Scripts there’s an excellent chance that it is pointing you to an infected website. NEVER click on a link in an e-mail that purports to come from the IRS or any unknown correspondent!
Ok…here is what you don’t understand:
They are not going to change the information without PROOF that it’s incorrect…your wife stating so verbally over the phone isn’t going to do it.
You have three choices:
1. Leave the social security number AS-IS…which means it won’t be a part of your wife’s credit profie.
2. Leave the social security number AS-IS, which also means your wife won’t get to jointly deduct mortgage interest.
3. Send them the information that they request (don’t do this without reading my PS).
Advice:
BE SURE that you call the number on your BILLING statement to verify the information and not the number that came with the letter.
Any scam artist can put any phone number on a letter and answer, “Countrywide” when you call them.
PS: I have never, ever seen a mortgage in my career close with an incorrect social security number. I am seriously questioning the authenticity of the letter. Social security numbers are used to pull the credit, and they are double and triple checked against several documents that you turn in such as W-2′s, paystubs, plus a search to verify the authenticity of the SS#. This is further verified by the closing agent.
Countrywide also images the entire file. That means if they have a copy of your credit report, W-2, etc and you claim that the number is incorrect, they can go back and independently verify this information….they don’t need you to send them anything.
Go back and review ALL of your closing documents. They are all generated by the same computer program. If the closing documents are correct, then Countrywide doesn’t need you to send them anything and I would keep going up the ladder until you can get someone to review the original mortgage file.
If it is incorrect on all of your original closing documents, then it’s a very, very rare error.