Anonymity Credit Card Style

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Identity theft is a big issue. If you talk to anyone who has been a victim of that particular crime you can get a feel for how incredibly disruptive it can be to your life.

What if a credit card company came along and changed things up to help protect consumers? What are some of the things they would have to do to keep their cardholder’s identity safe?

For starters they would have to remove information like card holder names and account number from the card, right?

Sound crazy, doesn’t it?

Well there is a new credit card company that is doing that very thing.

Revolution Card is a new credit card that leaves the account number and card holder name off of the card.

I think they may very well be on to something. Sounds a little like the PayPal of credit cards.

For those of you unfamiliar with PayPal, it is a system that makes money transactions via email. The person you send or get money from only sees your email address. Your financial information is theoretically much more protected because you can change the email address associated with your account.

In the same way the Revolution Card uses a pin number for each transaction. And they even allow you to create temporary pin numbers. That can be a useful feature for one time purchases, dealing with unfamiliar merchants, and when working online.

I suspect we will be seeing much more of Revolution Card in the future.

Thanks to Valeria Maltoni who shared about this in Fast Company.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Tags: Business, Finance, Credit, Fast Company, Identity Theft, Revolution Card, SuccessCREEations, Valeri Maltoni

Customer Service Credit Card Style

Scenario

You make a purchase with your credit card for $171.76. Even before the bill comes due you cut a check to the credit card company for that amount because you believe in paying off the balance in full every month.

Due to your convoluted but very effective personal accounting system you mail in a whole bunch of checks for individual purchases when you pay your bill. However when the credit card company processes your payment, their electronic check scanners mistakenly process that particular check for $5,171.76.

Then your bank’s electronic check scanner makes the exact same mistake and as a result overdraws your account.

Oh, and because the credit card company processes payments made on the same day largest to smallest a whole bunch of the other checks written for that payment bounce.

Fees galore!

How do you fix it?

After your initial panic you start looking at the evidence. A quick glance at the digital image of the check in question shows that it is obviously a mistake by the machine readers.

You better start making calls right away or this will get worse fast.

Now the question is this: How many phone calls and how long do you think it will take to get this obvious mistake by the machines resolved and the fees removed from your account? Read more

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Finance, Banks, Credit Cards, SuccessCREEations

Saying No to a Good Thing

It was a tremendous opportunity.

The first pass over the numbers was exciting. In theory we’d be increasing our net worth considerably, lots more equity the moment we signed the papers.

When we looked at the property it was just the sort of thing Gorgeous and I’d been talking about. And in the right location too.

We’d already been talking about refinancing anyway, so why not just pull some of the equity out of our house, use it as a down payment on this good deal? Then we could rent our our current house and we’d come out way ahead at the end of the day.

In theory.

But the thing about theories is they don’t always play out as expected when put to the test. Like Yogi Berra said,

In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

When I was finally able to pull together actual numbers (instead of the probably “about” numbers we’d been theorizing over) it was immediately obvious.
Read more

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Finance, Principles

Should a Business Blog Host Advertisements?

Business blogs and advertisements. It is an interesting topic to ponder.

Ads are a reality in the publishing business. And a blog is simply a web publishing platform. And there are plenty of publications that run advertisement free.

So, should you consider advertisements on your business blog as a potential additional revenue source?

Before you answer lets look at a couple things. Read more

Popularity: 10% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Finance, Misc, AdSense, Affiliate Programs, Amazon.com, Business Blogging, Contextual Ads, SuccessCREEations, Text Link Ads

How to Make Blogging Make Money For You

A while back Trevor Hampel left a comment on my 5 Reasons Why I Blog post that has stuck with me.

Trevor shared with us 5 reasons he blogs. But he added a footnote to his last reason. Here’s what he said:

I need the money. (What money? Show me the money)

I’ve been thinking about that for a while and I’ve come to the conclusion that earning money blogging is both much simpler and much harder than most of us think.

Let me explain. Read more

Popularity: 13% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Finance, AdSense, Bloggers For Hire, Business Blogging, PayPerPost, Text Link Ads, Trevor Hampel

On Seeking Advice

Yesterday we had an appointment with our financial adviser. It is always reassuring to me to know that there is a plan in place, especially when we are talking about something as important as our financial future.

We’ve talked to other financial folks in the past, but so far none have inspired the confidence the way the lady we are currently working with has.

The whole thing yesterday got me thinking about what kinds of people we look to for advice. What advice are we willing to listen to and what advice do we discard?

Read more

Popularity: 13% [?]

Tags: Finance, Advice, Permission Marketing, Seth Godin

Work Where Your Passion Is

I’ve been doing quite a bit of introspection these days. It’s not that I’m narcissistic or anything. I just keep hearing folks say over and over again that you will be most successful career wise if you work where your passion is.

The part that I’m struggling with is the whole part about where my passion really lies. That may sound pretty dumb to most of you. But the truth is I am good at a bunch of different things. I enjoy a variety of stuff. And I tend to get passionate about things for relatively short bursts of time before I move onto the next thing.

I think my whole struggle drives my wife a bit nuts.

I can imagine her thinking, “Here we go again,” whenever I get on the topic. I mean just last night we had another one of those “I don’t know what I want be when I grow up” conversations. Oh, and I’m nearly 40. Sheesh!

The good news is there are some folks who are offering up some practical ideas and techniques to get through a barrier like mine. I thought I’d share a couple links that I’ve found that help me out since I’m struggling here. Who knows? Maybe some of you are struggling with this too.

So here are the links: Read more

Popularity: 13% [?]

Tags: Finance, Motivation, Passion

Time - Your Wallet’s Best Friend or Worst Enemy

Time. It is one of the few ways all of us are truly equal. We all have the same 24 hours in each day. There aren’t folks our there who are given 30 hours each day. Nor does anyone have to make do with 20 hours.

How we choose to make use of those hours is one of the many things that differentiates us.

For example are we going to use that gift of time to pay interest by borrowing on our revolving credit cards? Or are we going to earn interest on some sort of investment program?

The choice is ours. Read more

Popularity: 5% [?]

Tags: Finance, Compound Interest, Time

The Path to Prosperity

We live in an instant messaging microwave oven society. There is a prevailing mentality that success is a result of luck. In our lottery culture, people who work hard are often seen as “suckers” who don’t know the score.

But hard work alone will not lead to success. The masses of mediocrity are full of folks work themselves almost to the bone, but never seem to achieve success. The proverb above points out that the path to prosperity is a two step process.
Read more

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tags: Finance, Principles, Prosperity

The Number One Reason The Rich Get Richer

A few years ago I was working for a company that was struggling financially. We all knew things were not going well for the company. It was in the transportation sector and the downturn that part of our economy suffered after 9/11 was just enough to push the weak company over the edge.

I had seen the writing on the wall a few months before the end and talked to my wife about looking for another job before it got to that point. We decided to stick it out. We had our reasons.

In the end we all lost our jobs. I was the operations manager so I was literally the last one out the door at 10 PM on that Friday night. The company was to be bought out by a competitor so we were told to come back on Monday and there’d just be a different name sign out front. However I got a call first thing Saturday morning from my boss telling me that negotiations had fallen apart during the night and Monday we’d all be cleaning out our desks.

He later told me that day of making calls was the worst day of his life. I believe it.

All of us who worked there walked out with nothing. We had folks who’d worked for the company 30+ years. Their pensions disappeared over night. It was very bad.

Fortunately for my wife and I we already knew the number one reason the wealthy continue to build their wealth while the rest of the vast masses of mediocrity just barely scrape by pay check to pay check while their credit card debt slowly grows out of hand.

And what is that one thing the wealthy do differently? Read more

Popularity: 5% [?]

Tags: Finance, Cash Flow, Income, Multiple Income Streams