Turbo Tax Review

I’ve used Intuit’s TurboTax to file my income taxes for the last five years. During that time, I’ve used a few different versions including the desktop and online versions of the software. I like the online version the best, and currently use the TurboTax Home and Business to handle my business filing needs. This year, I’m also going to give the TurboTax Business version a try to file taxes for my multi-member LLC.

Thanks to contributing writer, Debbie, for sharing her experiences with TurboTax.

TurboTax Free Trial

One of my favorite features is the ability to start using the online version for free. You can create an account on the website, and start entering your information as if you were going to use the software to file.

Just entering information doesn’t mean that you will have to use TurboTax to file your taxes. This let me try it out to see if I would like it before I had to make a decision to pay and use the software to actually file.

TurboTax e-File

I always use the e-file option, because if I’m owed a refund it helps me get it much faster than if I was to print and mail it. The IRS confirms receipt of the tax return within 48 hours, and the refund is processed in about 8 days. Federal e-filing is included in the price of your choice of TurboTax software – but if you want to e-file your State return, you may have to pay additional depending on where you live.

TurboTax Interview

When I first started filing my own taxes I didn’t know much about it. TurboTax literally takes you through your information one step at a time, telling you what information you need to gather and how to enter it into the software. The software handles all of the actual math and inserting your answers into the appropriate IRS tax forms.

I always go through every section possible, even if I don’t think it applies to me, because I’ve been surprised a few times at deductions I can claim that I would have skipped otherwise.  You don’t have to complete your information all in one sitting, either. You can save your progress and come back to it at a later time if you run out of time or just need to take a break!

Tax Software Challenges

One thing I had trouble with in previous years was finding a specific section to enter information. For example, I wanted to make adjustments to my home office expenses after I had already finished that section, and I had a really hard time finding it. I think for new users of TurboTax, it can be a challenge to navigate around through the sections to find a specific area.

I don’t think Intuit has made any changes to this, but I noticed this year when I went back to enter information I skipped over my first time through the process, it was a lot easier for me to find it. I’m guessing this is due to my experience level with the software now, rather than a change to the software itself because everything seems to be working the same as it has in previous years.

Tax Questions

If while you’re entering information in TurboTax there is something you don’t understand or a question that isn’t answered, you can use the Live Community feature to get help. There are a few options for getting assistance – an interactive agent, a community forum where other users of TurboTax answer each others questions, and a live phone call with a tax expert.

If you choose to make a phone call to a tax expert, it will cost $29 for 20 minutes – but chances are your questions can be answered through the interactive agent or community for free.

Tax Audit Check

I love that when you’ve finished entering all of your information, TurboTax runs a “check”. It will look at everything you’ve entered to see if there are any discrepancies or obvious errors and then takes you to that section within the software to make corrections.

It will also let you know what your audit risk level is based on the information you’ve entered and give you opportunity to purchase optional audit risk insurance. If you purchase the audit risk protection and your return is audited, TurboTax will help you understand why, and help you gather the information you need to provide to the IRS.

Hopefully this TurboTax review was helpful if you still haven’t filed your tax return yet this year and are considering tax prep software. Good luck doing your taxes!

Ally Bank,  formerly known as GMAC Bank,  is an online bank designed with the needs of the consumer in mind.  The bank offers an online savings account, certificates of deposit products, and a money market account – all which are FDIC insured.

About Ally Bank

Ally Bank was built on the foundation of GMAC Financial Services.  They took their years of experience in the industry as GMAC, combined with the knowledge that the consumer has different banking needs in our existing economic conditions, and morphed into Ally Bank and a new way of doing business.  Accounts can be opened without a minimum deposit required, and you do not have to maintain a minimum monthly balance, either.  When Ally Bank says their banking charges no monthly fees – they mean there are no monthly fees.

The Ally Bank Difference

The Ally Bank mission is to be straightforward with their customers.  They strive to find the various pain points customers experience with other banks – and then eliminate them through their own practices and policies.  They don’t hide any terms or conditions – as evident in the many Ally Bank commercials circulating television and Youtube.  While the commercials are very entertaining, they also make the point well that keeping things hidden or in fine print is wrong – and claim that doing so is not how they do business.

Ally Bank alerts their customers when their money could be earning more.  For example, with their 10 day Guarantee for best rates on Certificates of Deposit products, Ally will ensure you get the best rate possible.  Most other banks don’t provide any rate guarantee, which means the CD rate you receive will never be higher than expected, but it could be lower.  Ally Bank compounds interest daily, helping your money earn more compared to banks that compound monthly, quarterly, or even annually.

Another difference between Ally Bank and many others is their understanding that not everyone lives and sleeps on the same schedule.  In order to accommodate the various lifestyles of it’s customers, Ally Bank offers customer support services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  This should eliminate some of the frustrations graveyard shift workers experience when trying to call their banks.  People who work the overnight shift are typically sleeping during the standard banker’s hours.

Since Ally Bank is an online bank, their overhead operating costs are much lower than a bank with physical branches to maintain.  The savings they receive through lower operating costs are passed through to their customers in terms of higher interest rates.  Ally Bank, being part of the GMAC family of financial products, also has an asset generation business, enabling them to put deposits to work more efficiently.  They originate competitive, quality loan assets from the GMAC mortgage and auto loan operations profitably at these deposit rates.

Financial Products Offered at Ally  Bank

Ally Bank offers a number of financial products.  If they think your money could be earning a higher rate – you’ll receive a “sleeping money alert”, letting you know you might be able to get a better rate with a different product.  Financial products available at Ally Bank include:

• 1 year classic certificate of deposit
• 9 month no penalty certificate of deposit
• online savings accounts
• money market account

How to Take Advantage of FDIC Insurance at Ally Bank

You can feel confident your deposits are safe, because Ally Bank is FDIC insured up to $250,000 per investor through December 31, 2009.  You can actually insure money over $250,000 as well.  Each individual in your family can be insured up to $250,000 on a single-name, FDIC insured savings account.

For example, Mike Smith can open an account in his name and receive full FDIC insurance coverage.  His wife, Mary Smith, can open another account in her name, and receive full FDIC insurance coverage.  The Smiths would currently be FDIC protected for $500,000.  If they still had more money to deposit, they could open a joint account, in the name of Mike and Mary Smith, and receive $250,000 FDIC insurance protection on that account, too!

In some states, you would also be allowed to open single-named accounts in children’s names.  Another option to increase your FDIC insurance protection would be to consider opening trust accounts, with the money payable to the beneficiaries of the account upon your death.

To open an account or check out the current rates for the online savings account, money market account, or certificate of deposit click here.

This Zecco review looks at the free stock trades and trading platform offered by the online brokerage Zecco and how the cheap trades compare with the customer service and investment research tools.

Free Stock Trades

Zecco offers free trades (up to 10 trades per month) and zero commissions (with some strings attached, that we’ll explain) which is pretty attractive to many investors. Of course, you can’t always have your cake and eat it too. 

Zecco doesn’t have the research firepower and sleek, intuitive web site design that characterize bigger online trading sites. That said, if you can live without some traditional bells and whistles, the trading discounts can save you on commission.

Investment Data Sharing

Zecco’s social networking aspect is pretty cool; members can interact with each other via ZeccoShare, a service that combines Web 2.0 fare like forums, blogs, and profiles with key investor information like most popular stock holdings and most traded stock holdings of investors who have opted to share their investment data.

Brokerage Stability

One more point: a quick review of SEC filings reveals that Zecco should be around for a while – it has received $35 million in financing that it’s been using, in part, to improve the site’s sometimes criticized trading platform. Hey, in this economy, stability and continuity count.

Zecco Overview

Zecco stands for “Zero Cost Commission” – and that is certainly the selling point for a trading site that offers free trades and low cost option trading. Let’s face it – price-wise, you can’t do better than free stock trades. The site was founded in July, 2006, touting itself as a discount-happy online brokerage that would bake its bread on cash earned from customer on interest income and margin spreads.

If you have $25,000 in a Zecco account or make at least 25 trades a month, you earn your 10 free trades per month. After 10 trades, Zecco’s fee of $4.50 per trade kicks in.

Zecco Investment Research

What seems to be missing is the higher level of research and investment tools seen on other sites – but that is changing, and for the better. Athough Zecco touts its tutorial and blogs, we didn’t find them as helpful as we’d like. But then again, we like doing our own research – and Zecco has to keep costs down somewhere.

Zecco Customer Service

The site’s customer service wasn’t bad – we got an email response to a registration question the same day we sent it. Trade executions were fairly fast, comparable with what we saw in our earlier TradeKing review.

In the next portion of the Zecco review we’ll take a look at the trading fees, options trades, and margin accounts offered by Zecco.

FNBO Direct online savings account higher interest rates and customer service are two of the reasons a reader is pleased with his high yield savings account.

FNBO Direct vs ING Direct

The main complaint I hear about FNBO Direct is that it’s user interface is a little behind the other online savings accounts available in terms of functionality. The reader seems to agree with this sentiment, preferring the ING Direct web site but he isn’t as pleased with their interest rates. I agree the interface isn’t as flashy but the FNBO Direct interest rates and customer service
are better.

I was glad to hear that I had introduced him to other options in terms of an online bank account, as he describes in the email below:

I enjoyed your comments on FNBO Direct. I also have an account with ING Direct. ING is very flashy and has some great features, but thier rates have slipped as well as their ratings. I researched the many online options and was very impressed with FNBO. Kiplingers magazine also picked them as their top choice for an online banker. My experience has been 100% positive.


As a coincidence I was looking for a credit card processing plan for my wifes small business and after checking in to dozens of providers I had already picked the service from FNBO’s parent company First National Bank of Omaha. Great customer service all around. Something that is becoming more of a rarity these days. Thanks again.

J

Sounds as though J has had a similar experience to mine with good customer service, as I discussed in my FNBO Direct Review.

Other Financial Services

Both ING and First National Bank of Omaha offer services other than online savings accounts. As J mentioned, he took advantage of the credit card processing from FNBO, they also offer an online bill pay option.

ING offers lending services as I’ve covered in the past with the ING Mortgage customer review. They also offer brokerage services that let you buy stocks for $4 through Sharebuilder.

When it comes to online savings accounts at ING Direct and FNBO Direct, ING Direct has the better website but FNBO Direct offers higher interest rates and from my experience has better customer service.

TradeKing is one of the best online discount brokers thanks to its great customer service, user-friendly interface, and low fees that start at $4.95 per trade (plus .65 cents for options contract), with no hidden fees and no account minimums.

In the Media: “Discount Broker of the Year” in 2007; SmartMoney Magazine; Top-Five Brokers, 2007; Barron’s

TradeKing Overview

The TradeKing Web-based platform features powerful online equity, options and fixed-income trading tools, including real-time portfolio information, advanced order entry, customized charting and alerts, free research and integrated news, stock, option and mutual fund screeners, volatility charts, a pricing probability calculator, enhanced option chains and interactive educational information. 

A pioneer in incorporating social networking features in online trading, TradeKing gives its clients unprecedented means for finding and connecting with like-minded investors to share ideas and strategies. TradeKing is a privately held FINRA member brokerage firm. Each account is protected up to $25 million through SIPC and TradeKing’s clearing firm.

Our Take: What do you say about an online trading platform where the same trading rates apply to everyone, and where the emphasis is on a “Match.com”-like environment where like-minded traders can meet up and prepare notes on their favorite stocks?

More and more, traders are saying “yes” to TradeKing since they have a reputation for high quality, but low cost. We decided to kick the tires a bit and find out if the word on the street is on the mark.

Opening a TradeKing Account

It didn’t take me longer than eight minutes to open a TradeKing trading account. I cheated somewhat by not reading the “terms and conditions’ section as closely as I should have, make sure you the extra time and read the fine print. Even then you should up and running in under 15 minutes.

Here’s what TradeKing wants from you, info-wise:

– Name
– Address
– Email Address
– Social Security
– Employer
– Trading background
– Financial info (i.e., your annual income, net worth, liquid worth)

The security feature is a welcome one, if a tad different (access goes through a keyboard-based password system). But it only takes several seconds and I appreciate the fact that so much emphasis is put on privacy and security. That should keep a lot of skeptical spouses satisfied.

TradeKing Fee Structure

As I noted above, TradeKing has a very democratic stance on trading fees — the same rates apply to everyone – beginner or expert, large account or small, regardless of how often members trade. That goes for both market and limit orders, with no hidden fees.

For stock and exchange traded fund executions, TradeKing charges $4.95 per transaction. The same rate applies to options trades, with an added .65 cents per contract.

Minimum Requirements: How about none? With TradeKing, there are no minimum opening balances. Better yet, there aren’t any maintenance or inactivity fees to toss you a curveball when you’re not expecting one. Compare that with a site like eTrade, where quarterly inactivity fees are as pervasive as bananas at a King Kong family reunion (they charge $40 for inactive accounts).

Transferring money. Check TradeKing for coupons before transferring any money into a new account. The day I visited the site, TradeKing had a $150 coupon deal for new transfer accounts, where they would reimburse up to $150 any transfer fees incurred. (The company also has a $50 gift if you sign up a friend).

For new investors, be forewarned. You might be itching to begin trading in your new account but your money transfer is frozen, for administrative purposes, for five business days. And you can’t take money out of your account for 10 days. TradeKing does allow you to place any unused money you have in your account into a TradeKing sweep account where it can earn interest. Check with a TradeKing customer service rep to make sure you’re benefiting from this option.

Trading with Trade King

Again, democracy reigns at TradeKing. If you’re an advanced trader, you can pretty much take off and trade on your own right away. The trading interface is clean, elegant and intuitive. For beginners, TradeKing walks you through every step of the trade. For example, on options trade, TradeKing has an “option chain” function that takes you by the hand and shows you how, step-by-step, to execute a trade.

By and large, you’ll be entering orders for stocks and ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) in either dollar or share amounts. After entering your trade, you can preview the order and, for mega-safety buffs, enter a second, distinct trading password for your protection.

Taxes and Account Administration. TradeKing stores all of your account information, like trades executed, trade confirmations, regular account statements, tax information – all on one easy-to-read page. You can customize the page yourself, creating alerts and setting up features like Maxit Tax Manager, which helps you track realized and unrealized gains and easily calculate your trading and account tax liabilities.

TradeKing Customer Service

: Nice – I called TradeKing on a Monday  – typically a chaotic trading day – and was talking to a pleasant customer service representative within half a minute. In this category, TradeKing reigns. I also sent an email to TradeKing, but that took a bit longer – about 10 minutes to get a response (still, not so bad in this, the age of the indifferent customer service rep).

Also, you can reach TradeKing via instant message, which is a wrinkle not found in most online trading sites. Even big dogs like eTrade (I hate to keep picking on them, but there you go), Schwab and Scottrade don’t have instant messaging customer service capabilities yet.

Overall, TradeKing was rated number one in customer service by SmartMoney Magazine, ahead of E*Trade, Scottrade, Fidelity, Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade.

Networking/Social Community: On the company web site, TradeKing touts that it was honored by non-profit think tank The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) for its achievement in applying social media to create its 10,000 plus-member online investor Community. TradeKing’s pioneering use of social media was recognized in the corporate category for “Collaboration and Co-Creation” along with some of the nation’s largest brand innovators, including Dell, IBM, Cisco and Wal-Mart.

The TradeKing Community was launched in 2005 to give individual equity and options traders a place to connect and share ideas in an open, yet trusted environment. In just a few years, the Community has grown to include more than 10,000 active members who participate through blogging, publishing their Certified Trades and commenting on the rationale for their investments.
 

TradeKing Fact Sheet

TradeKing offers . . . .

– Low, flat fees with no minimums and no hidden fees
– $4.95 per trade plus $.65 per options contract

Individual online brokerage accounts for:

• Options trading
• Equities and ETF trading
• Mutual funds trading
• Fixed-income trading

A user-friendly website with:

• customized settings for tracking balances, orders, holdings, alert
• sorting of transactions by symbol, duration, security, date, status and
  price
• transparency into overall account records
• advanced tools, research, analysis and educational information
• innovative community networking capabilities to help connect like-
  minded traders

TradeKing Tools

Key tools include . . .

• Options calculator with advanced volatility calculations
• Profit and Loss calculator to study potential gains/losses or track
positions
• Probability calculator for historical or implied volatility to calculate the
probability of success for a specific option strategy
• Options Scanner to screen over 150,000 option contracts to find
optimal trades
• Strategy Scanner to screen the options universe for specific strategies
that meet certain criteria
• Stock Screener to find the stocks to suit a certain strategy
• Mutual Fund Screener to find the right mutual funds for specific
objectives
• Streaming Quotes for access to streaming and real time investment data

TradeKing Research

Research offered . . .

• Market snapshots of exchange activity, quotes, news headlines and
industry commentary; in-depth research on company profiles and
performance, investment ratings, growth rates and other key
measures

• Fundamental & Technical Analysis tools include an options chain
with strategic guidance on specific strategies; volatility charts for an
underlying stock or index; comprehensive Earnings Center and a
robust set of technical analysis tools powered by RecogniaTM that
feature chart pattern recognition and price forecasting

Social Networking

Community features include . . .

• Daily blog following industry happenings, trends and newsworthy tips
• Message boards available to post comments or questions
• Random sample of other trades executed on TradeKing
• Ability to find other members who adhere to similar research or
trading styles and follow similar investment strategies
• RSS news and podcasting available

Resources

Education sources include . . .

TradeKing’s Education Learning Center includes newsletters, webinars, three blogs, including a dedicated Options Guy blog, definitions of common trading strategies, glossary of trading terms, as well as recommended books, software and other informational websites

TradeKing Review

TradeKing is Wall Street’s version of the Great Society, where investors of all stripes are welcome and encouraged to trade according to their needs, talent and experience.

For beginners, it offers plenty of tutorials and an easy-to-navigate trading and account management interface.

For experts, there are plenty of sophisticated tools and toys to enhance your trading experience – all for one of the lowest trading fee structures in the industry. Plus, the social networking aspect plugs you nicely into a spirited community of active traders who likely share your enthusiasm for trading online.

Click here to sign up for a TradeKing account – Through the end of the month, TradeKing offers a $50 bonus for new customers that open an account and make a trade.

FNBO Direct is one of the best online savings accounts not just because it offers high yield interest rates on your deposits but also because it makes accessing your money simple with an ATM card and great customer service as well as being one of the safest online bank accounts.

Easy Access to Online Savings

When you signup up for an FNBO Direct account they give you the option of an FNBO ATM card so that you have easy access to your money even while it’s earning over 3% in your high yield savings account.  I really love this feature and wish ING Direct would offer it on their savings account.

Of course your FNBO Direct account is accessible online whenever you need it but something else I’ve been pleased with is their customer service for times you run into problems or questions with the account.  They make it easy to get help with online representatives available via a toll free call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

I was up late working last night, called FNBO customer service at around 2 AM with a question about logging in, and had my question answered right away.  It seems so many other financial institutions you call for help in the evening and get a recorded message, please call back during our normal business hours, 8 – 5.  FNBO Direct makes it easier to have access to your money whenever you need it.

Conservative Approach Offers Security

The FNBO Direct parent company, First National Bank of Omaha, saw through the risks of subprime mortgages and easy credit and was not invested in the securities that are tied to collateralized debt obligations and derivatives.  While other major banks were failing left and right, the disciplined money management of FNBO kept them secure and actually adding new customers.  These are some of the reasons why Bankrate chose FNBO as one of the safest online banks in their Safe and Sound bank rating system.

I’ve already covered how FNBO is the largest privately owned banking company in the US and how the CEO manages risk and has a history of protecting your money, you can read more about the FNBO Direct CEO and its financial strategies.

Competitive Interest Rates

One of the other main reasons I opened an account with FNBO Direct is that they have historically offered some of the best interest rates available in an online savings account.  They do track the market, raising and lowering rates along with Fed moves, so the annual percentage yield will fluctuate over time but in comparison to other online bank accounts, FNBO Direct has been one of the top banks in terms of interest rates.

Easy to Open

I was pleased with the ease of opening and funding my account with FNBO Direct.  The account creation process went smoothly from the personalized verification identity check to the ACH funding setup.  I was even interrupted by a screaming fit from our son right in the middle of the application and was able to come back and pickup right where I left off.  If the readers are interested, I can go into the details of the account signup process in another post.

I’d recommend signing up with FNBO Direct, it’s been a good banking experience for me so far, if you try it out let me know how it goes for you.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is speech recognition software that allows you to dictate your content to your computer without having to type in everything by hand.

I am actually using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to write this review.  You may remember that I have had problems with repetitive stress pain in the past and used Dragon NaturallySpeaking for a while.

Repetitive Stress Strain

The amount of typing I did at my day job was reduced considerably about a year ago when I took on a new position and did more managing than coding.  Now that I have a new job I’m  spending a lot more time on the keyword and it is taking its toll on my wrists.

This had me worried since I spend a lot of time typing articles, and e-mails, and various things for Money Smart Life. It didn’t want to stop writing but my wrists really need a rest.

The good news is that Dragon NaturallySpeaking allows me to continue “writing” without adding to the problem of repetitive stress strain.

Here are some of the features that Dragon NaturallySpeaking offers:

• High accuracy levels for speech recognition
• Dictate and edit in most Windows application, including Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and AOL
• Create and edit documents and spreadsheets, compose emails and instant messages, or surf the Web just by speaking
• Quick Voice Formatting commands allow users to issue a single voice command to make deleting and formatting text faster than ever
• Use the included high-quality headset, work with a Bluetooth microphone, or even dictate into a digital recorder when away from the PC

One of the things they mention is using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to avoid repetitive strain injuries – “By using voice to control the PC and create documents, users reduce their risk of developing repetitive strain injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.”

New Features

I am still using an old version of Dragon, version 7, but there are features in the latest version, version 10, that sound very useful so I may upgrade.  I particularly like the handheld dictation feature:

Dictate into a handheld recorder for later transcription
Be productive on the go. Users can dictate into any Nuance-certified digital recorder when they’re away from the office for automatic transcription when it is synched with a PC.

This would be great for my commute, I could record my thoughts on my drive and upload them when I get home, pretty slick.

Dragon Naturally Speaking Reccomendation

Anyhow, I would recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking to anyone looking for speech recognition software or a dictation tool.  It is helping me keep writing despite repetitive stress issues so I can’t say enough good things about it.

The best gas credit cards can save you anywhere from one cent to four cents a gallon over other gas rewards cards according to a new gas card survey.

Gas Survey Details
The survey analyzed 31 different gas rewards cards and how much money each card could save you based on how much you spend on gas each month plus the total amount of purchases you put on your card monthly.  The study looked at the savings from the perspective of three different typical household profiles, determined by 2006 numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

How Much Can You Save on Gas?
The results suggest that choosing the top gas rewards card can save you anywhere from 1 – 4 cents per gallon over the worst performing gas card depending on which profile best matches your spending patterns.  Among the top five gas credit cards for each profile the savings range from half a cent to one cent apart between the different cards.  So stick with one of the top five cards, preferably the best one, and you should be okay.

Combined Purchases
Two of the profiles assume you don’t use a separate card for gas purchases.  For the first of these profiles (based on spending $1,500 per month on a single credit card - $200 of which is spent on gas) the survey lists the top five best gas rewards credit cards as:

• Blue Cash from American Express
• Chase Perfect Card
• Speedway SuperAmerica Mastercard
• American Express TrueEarnings
• Discover Open RoadNo longer available

The last profile (assumes $3,000 a month on one credit card, $400 of which is spent on gas purchases) recommends the same top four, with the Hess Visa rounding out the number five spot. The survey also looks at the benefits you can get from card signup bonuses and breaks those down by the savings during the first year of use.

Gas Card Only
If you have a separate rewards card that you only use for gas purchases then the survey suggests you’re better off with cards issued by oil companies, the numbers assume you spend an average of $400 a month on gas and make 80% of your purchases with the same gas company:

• Speedway SuperAmerica Mastercard
• Hess Visa
• Shell Platinum Mastercard
• Chase PerfectCard
• Sinclair Platinum Mastercard

Best Gas Credit Cards
Looking back at my earlier gas credit card review, all but one of the cards I suggested show up in at least one of the top five areas.  The Chase Freedom card was not included in the survey so it wasn’t ranked at all.

One of the things I noticed looking through all the numbers was that the American Express Blue Cash card was consistently a top performer in most scenarios, which is why we use it for a majority of our purchases.  The survey also notes how sticking with one gas company can pay off, for example the BP Visa is in the top 5 for each profile.

Equifax’s ID Patrol, a new identity theft protection and credit monitoring service, launched recently and I used a promotion code to sign up for a free trial. I’m a big fan of credit monitoring services, as you could probably tell from my True Credit review, especially if they offer identity theft protection as part of the package deal. So, lets review how ID Patrol stacks up against the competition.

Let’s start with a quick walkthrough. To sign up for the service I went to Equifax.com.

It was pretty simple to locate their ID Patrol product since they have a huge banner on the front page.

Then I logged into my account with Equifax. (You can create one for free if you don’t already have one, you don’t have to sign up for anything.) Once I signed up for ID Patrol I was taken directly to a page that showed me my current credit reports at all three bureaus.

Aside from having all three of my credit reports on the same page, my debt-to-credit ratio at all three bureaus was clearly spelled out. The entire thing was easy to read and pretty comprehensive. They get points for that in my book – I’m busy, and if I have to take 30 minutes just to figure out how to use a service I’m paying for, then I’m not a happy camper.

I was pleasantly surprised that all of the main ID Patrol features were visible on the front page and it took me very little time to figure out how to use them.

At first glance this service has a ton of features. You can:

• View your current credit reports at all three credit bureaus.
• Freeze your Equifax credit report with the click of a button.
• Get email alerts any time something changes on your credit reports.
• They monitor suspected internet trading sites (The ones that buy and sell people’s information and credit card numbers.) and they will alert you if your information shows up on a “for sale” list.
• You get up to $20,000 of identity theft insurance as part of the ID Patrol package.
• They have “Identity Theft Resolution Specialists” on call 24/7 in case your identity does get stolen.

Now, since most credit monitoring services offer you three-in-one credit reports, account freezing, and email alerts, I wanted to take a closer look at the other main features to see if the service was really worth the $14.95 a month.

Equifax WebDetect™ – Suspected Internet Trading Site Monitoring:

It took me about three seconds to add my social security number to the list of numbers that ID Patrol actively searches for over the internet.

The cynic in me was hoping that they didn’t just Google my Social Security number. There is no official list of sites that they monitor since they are supposedly “underground, illicit information trading sites.”

I was not 100 percent sold on this particular feature. I mean, to my way of thinking, the identity thieves who are selling information are probably selling large lists at a time – and I doubt seriously that they are letting prospective buyers “Get a peek” at said lists before they pay for them.

So…if that’s the case, how could Equifax monitor those lists for my information, unless they are buying the lists themselves? It just does not make sense to me.

Giving them the benefit of the doubt though, if they did find my information on an “illicit list” then the email alert might give me time to freeze my credit reports and call my bank before any charges were made.

$20,000 of Identity Theft Insurance:

Now the truth is, when your identity is stolen and fraudulent charges are made on your credit cards you are not liable for more than $50 per card. Here’s a quote from the FTC:

• Your maximum liability under federal law for unauthorized use of your credit card is $50.
• If you report the loss before your credit cards are used, the FCBA says the card issuer cannot hold you responsible for any unauthorized charges.
• If a thief uses your cards before you report them missing, the most you will owe for unauthorized charges is $50 per card.
• Also, if the loss involves your credit card number, but not the card itself, you have no liability for unauthorized use.”

However, if your bank account information is stolen you could end up being liable for all the charges that were drawn on your account between the time that your information was stolen, and the time that you reported the theft to your bank.

I was surprised to find that the $20,000 of Identity theft coverage also pays for:

• The cost of getting notarized fraud affidavits.
• The cost of sending certified letters to your creditors and the police.
• If you have to take time off of work to straighten the mess out they could reimburse you up to $500 per week, for as many as four weeks.
• “Reasonable” attorney fees, long distance phone calls to your creditors, and, if you had to close out your previous accounts, they even pay for new loan application fees.

24/7 Identity Theft Resolution Specialists:

A search of Experian’s website did not reveal a special number for ID Patrol users to call in case of fraud. They do list an automated 24 hour phone number – so I called it. Disappointingly all it did was give me instructions on how to place a fraud alert online.

Two things here:

1. You don’t have to use Equifax’s ID Patrol Service in order to call their number and get automated instructions. That service is available to everyone, so no real reason to pay extra for it.
2. If you really think your identity has been stolen, then you need to freeze all three of your credit reports completely – not just place a fraud alert. Most lenders will refuse to issue you credit if you have a fraud alert on your account – but not all of them. When you freeze your credit report it means that lenders literally cannot pull your credit score to give you a loan, so it’s far more effective than just an “alert”.

In Review:

I am actually going to ditch my first love (True Credit) for this service. Why? Because I am currently paying $15 a month to monitor all three of my credit reports with True Credit, and it has no identity theft insurance. With ID Patrol, I get all three reports, plus the identity theft insurance for $14.95.

Even given the dubious nature of some of the features, it comes down to price vs. functionality, for me. ID Patrol has the extra features that I want, it’s basically the same price, and it’s easier to use.

Another priceless bonus is this: The only ads I ran across while using ID patrol were for an Orange Checking Account at ING Direct, and a Home Depot Account. True Credit’s pages are swimming in targeted advertisements, and that gets old fast.

So, what do you think? Is Equifax’s ID Patrol Service worth $15 a month? Would you use it?

Paypal is becoming a more-ingrained part of the Internet. If you’ve ever been worried about security problems using Paypal, keep reading. The service is pretty invaluable, but it’s also had some ups and downs.

What exactly is Paypal: it’s a online payment system allowing payments online without having to deal with money orders, checks, or inputting your credit card on a new site. More and more vendors are incorporating Paypal into shopping carts. For vendors, this is a cheaper and easier system than creating a merchant account for credit card processing. For spenders, it’s easier to have one type of payment system. Paypal users enter in a credit or debit card number and the funds are taken out that card. This is a free service for the majority of users, but people with a very active account, such as top eBay sellers, will need to get a higher-end Premier account to process additional transactions.

Paypal also accepts payments for individuals, rather than businesses. Each user can be paid through an email address – though basic accounts are limited to 5 debit card transaction and $500 per month. Once the funds are uploaded to Paypal, the user has a number of choices. Most commonly, users transfer these funds directly to a bank account. This is free, though a bank could charge for the transfer.

There are some fees associated with Paypal – but these are normally associated with online vendors selling a product, rather than people making purchases. There can be increased fees depending on the country of origin, type of currency, and the amount of money sent. Currently, Paypal has 164 million accounts and operates all over the world in 190 markets.

Problems with Paypal

Paypal is not without its problems, as exemplified by the site, Paypalsucks.com, which is on a crusade against the money transfer company. Their main complaints against Paypal are:

1. Limited fraud protection. Unlike credit cards, if someone uses your Paypal account, you could be liable to those charges. However, if the Paypal account is connected to a credit card, you could dispute a purchase directly. In addition, Paypal offers increased anti-fraud and chargeback protection now than when these types of charges were first made.
2. Paypal is vulnerable to identity theft, such as phishing scams, in which scammers set up dummy, look-alike sites to get financial information. If you’re the victim of one of these scams, Paypal has limited protection for users.
3. It is at Paypal’s discretion to freeze or unload your account if they feel there has been unethical or fraudulent activity. This has happened to people who were entirely innocent, or they were penalized because someone paid them with a stolen credit card, which is entirely out of a person’s control.

This post doesn’t mean to shill for Paypal, but none of these issues appear to be too drastic. Take #2: any web surfer should be well aware of phishing and spam email schemes, so the surfer does bear some responsibility. A couple of years ago there were a lot of spam Paypal emails phishing for info, but these have fallen back a bit recently. A way to avoid #3 is to transfer funds as soon as their received in the account. However, if you’re using those funds to buy things, rather than attaching the Paypal account to a credit or debit card, then you’re going to have to leave the funds standing. The recommendation: attach the Paypal account to a card with some consumer protection.

Finally, a MAJOR caveat to those complaints. The PaypalSucks site links to a Paypal alternative called National Merchant Bancard, so there is something slightly duplicitous about the site itself. That said, the site does raise some issues that you should look out for. Generally, you should feel pretty secure using Paypal. The value in Paypal is that it is actually more secure: instead of plugging in sensitive financial info on an unverified website, you can pay through Paypal and feel more secure about the transaction.


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