Financial Safety Tips

Vital 'safety first' tips on how to keep your finances both Private and Safe

Vital financial safety tips are an increasingly important part of our lives nowadays... more and more risks are out there... and quite a few are not of our own making.

There are basically four financial safety first tips I want to discuss briefly here.

• Insolvancies... I have recently heard of quite a few companies who have been trading [in some cases for more than 25 years], both online and off, going into administration. Not only is this very sad for the individual companies, and for us as it limits choice, but it is a lesson in how to buy. Quite a few of these companies are within the electrical appliance market... the Electric Shop being a case in point... though travel companies, and a long-standing Xmas savings club have been victims too.
• The lesson, as you will note, if you visit and explore the messages from the administrators, is that you should buy your goods with a Credit Card. If you pay by cheque or some other method you are an undsecured creditor, and as such you can kiss your money - and any chance of receiving the ordered, and paid for, goods goodbye.

  My own advice would be, if you are nervous of using a credit card online... to get a credit card specifically to use online and keep it for that only. Also read very carefully what rules and limits apply to your purchases. You need to get a card which offers the best guarantee of reimbursement if a supplier should fail to provide the goods which you ordered, goes into administration, or fails in some other way.

• The third of the financial safety tips is to use a shredder on everything which has your name and address on it... this should really go without saying now.
• And the fourth of the financial safety tips has to do with the above. Have you heard that some of our banks have recently been found to have been less than careful with their clients personal information? Use a good search engine... I recommend Search Big Daddy... very easy to use and convenient - find out what you can about your own bank's or building society's record.

Take care out there!

I have recently found a new website called... Debt Management Talk... do check it out, you could find it invaluable.

The idea of the site is pretty simple. Its a place where you can go to get advice, ask questions, give advice, and learn about personal finance and how to get out of debt. At the same time, they are paying their members to participate.

Again, I have just joined up with the site, but it looks pretty good. Its free to join and the people that are there seem to be pretty nice.

If you're interested in checking it out, then use the link above (yes, I do get credit for it and I will earn money if you start participating)... but please don't just dismiss it on that account!

You will find loads more helpful pages within this site on Identity Theft and other financial safety first strategies.

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