Equifax ID Patrol Review – A Good Choice to Monitor Your Credit Reports and Protect Your Identity?

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 WebDetectâ„¢ – 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?

Posted on August 9th, 2008 in Credit, credit monitoring, Identity Theft, Reviews | 11 Comments

Written by Connie Brooks · Filed Under Credit, credit monitoring, Identity Theft, Reviews 

Currency Investing – Should You Buy A Currency ETF?

Some of you have had some interest in Currency ETFs, so we decided to share with you some more information about them. They have gained popularity over the past two years due to the weakening dollar and the strengthening Euro, British pound, and Canadian dollar. I am not an expert on trading currency. In fact, I’ve never traded currency or currency ETFs, but I’ll share with you my take on them.

What is a Currency ETF?

A currency ETF is just like a big savings account. and it holds cash to invest in banks to gain interest. They became available in 2005 to help the average investor tap into the currency market.

Risk Analysis

The risk involved is very high when trading currency. It’s very volatile, similar to trading commodities. Trading foreign currency relies on the weakening of the U.S. dollar. Betting on the U.S. dollar to continue to weaken shouldn’t be for the long-term. Ultimately, anyone investing in U.S. securities shouldn’t bank on the dollar continuing to weaken. The currency ETF is a good short-term investment if you want to play the marketing timing game. But, as a long-term investment, it’s not a good choice. It’s too unpredictable, and it bets on the U.S economy not to do well, similar to gold and silver commodities.

Strategy

Buying a currency ETF for 6 to 12 months can help offset your losses from a weakening dollar, but don’t expect the U.S. dollar to continue to weaken. Even a small fluctuation in the U.S. dollar can cause you to lose a chunk of cash. Don’t use more than 5% of your portfolio to invest in foreign currency.

My Picks:

  • The British Pound Trust
  • Currency Shares Euro Trust

Those are the only two currencies that I see continuing to strengthen. I wouldn’t bet on Japan or China. They are strong, but their currencies seem to be the most volatile. The Euro has consistently strengthened against the U.S. dollar since its inception.

Posted on August 8th, 2008 in Investing | 8 Comments

Written by Erik · Filed Under Investing 

Exciting Personal Finance Times Online – Month in Review

July was a fun month! We had a lot of great finance topics from the writer auditions and a lot of great feedback from the readers.  Congratulations to the two winners of the feedback contest:

Investing Topics
One of the frequent requests from the reader survey was that I cover more investing topics.  As a result I started the Stock Market Investing 101 series and last month covered how the stock market works.

I also chose an investing theme for the writer auditions and asked them to take a look at investing in specific industries or topics.  Erik chose to to write a mini-series on investing in Exchange Traded Funds, Henry wrote about investing in biotech, and Connie cover investing in commodities.

Hopefully you’ve gotten something out of the additional investing topics in July. That’s one of the reasons why I really liked the survey, it helped me know what you want to read about, so thanks!

Special Deals
Another request was coverage of deals to save or make you money. In my last monthly review I said I’d include more of those but I haven’t gotten around to that yet.  The one deal that I did feature was the cashback promotion where you get $10 cashback if used PayPal when signing up for a free trial of Blockbuster Total Access.

Product Reviews
Something else people wanted to see more of were reviews of specific financial products or services that could benefit them so those were included in the writer auditions as well.

This month we looked at a credit report and monitoring service with a True Credit review, an online savings and checking account with an ING Direct review, the details of the “anything credit” credit card feature in the Chase Freedom card review, and an online payment system with the PayPal review.

Gas Saving Tips
As gas prices keep going up, saving money on gas is an ever growing concern for most readers.  In light of that I looked at gas credit cards, saving on gas with a four day work week, a tip for cutting gas prices with grocery reciepts, and finally a list of gas saving strategies ranging from gas rewards credit cards to working from home.

Career Tips
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m in the search of a new job so you also got some career tips last month.  How to decide when to get a new job and which one to choose, a whole list of career tips in the carnival of careers, short discussion of detail on your resume, and finally the benefits of having a career portfolio.

Thanks for a fun month, looking foward to another great one in August!

Posted on August 8th, 2008 in Personal Finance | 1 Comment

Written by Ben Edwards · Filed Under Personal Finance 

Make Morey Money & Be Happy in Your Job Using a Work Portfolio

Who doesn’t want to earn more money or find a job they like better?  I can’t speak for the entire job market but pretty much everyone that leaves our team at work is in search of higher pay or a more fulfilling job.

I myself have joined the ranks of the job searchers recently and have learned the power of a portfolio in helping you find jobs that do pay better and that you enjoy more.

Creating a Career Strategy
The first thing that happens when you go to build a professional portfolio is that you have to decide what should go in it.  It’s during this exploratory phase that you basically force yourself to create a career strategy.  Here are some of the questions you’ll answer that help map out your career plans.

  • What work have you done in the past that you enjoyed and are proud of?
  • What skills do you want to exhibit to potential employers? 
  • What types of jobs are you targeting? 
  • Do you have the needed skills for the desired jobs?
  • What things in your current job do you want to avoid in the future?

Figuring out where you are professionally and where you want to be is key to finding work you enjoy and being happy in your job.

Building a Profile
Once you have your strategy figured out you start noticing things you do in your current job that you can use as part of your portfolio.

  • Positive feedback from managers or clients.
  • Examples of problems you solved and how.
  • Successful completion of projects or attainment of goals.

You can document these as they occur, rather than having to try and remember them all next time you put together a resume.  Knowing you want to use your accomplishments in your portfolio you can take extra care to capture the details and document the success as it happens.

Overcoming Laziness
One of the main reasons people don’t have a portfolio is that they don’t take the time to put one together.  It certainly can be a good deal of work but once you form your strategy and create your initial profile, simply adding to it over time is much simpler.

Marketing Yourself
When an employer hires someone they are taking a risk, making an investment in their company.  While you see making more money as an end goal, they see paying you that money as a way to achieve their business goal.  The more you can convince an employer that your skills are what they need to succeed, the more money they’ll be willing to pay you.

One of the best ways to convince employers of your worth is to give them concrete evidence that you can deliver on what you claim on your resume.  Your portfolio demonstrates the work you can do and the results it’s helped others achieve.

If an employer can get to know you and your skills better through your portfolio you’re lowering the amount of risk they feel in extending you an offer.  By highlighting what you can do with your portfolio you’re differentiating yourself from other candidates and increasing your value in the minds of the person that’s considering hiring you.

Start Your Portfolio Today
I’ve put a lot of work over the last few weeks into career planning and portfolio building.  I wish I would have started one years ago, it would have saved me a lot of time and I’d likely already be in a job that I enjoyed more.  So block out some time in the coming weeks to start building your own portfolio so you can market yourself appropriately to make more money and find a job you can be happy in.

Posted on August 7th, 2008 in Career | 9 Comments

Written by Ben Edwards · Filed Under Career 

Writer Audition Results – The Readers Chose …

Before I make the big announcement I wanted to share with you why we went through an audition process and why I’m glad we did.

Good Jobs & Good People are Hard to Find
If you’ve ever taken a new job that you’ve ended up later regretting you probably know where I’m coming from.  There’s only so much you can tell about a future boss and the company during an interview.  As you learn the job and get to know your co-workers weird habits you might realize you made a mistake.  Even if you suspect early on it’s not the job for you, chances are you’ll be there for a while as you first decide to “give it a little more time” and then later finally start looking for another job.

Taking a Test Run
The nice thing about the audition process was that I got to know the writers and see how they operated.  Conversely, they got to know me a little and we had a chance to see how we worked together. I’m happy to report they all seem to be nice people and I worked well with all of them.

Reader Feedback
The other benefit of the audition process is that you, the readers, get a chance to see which style, personality, and content you get the most out of.  It only seems fair that since you’re the ones reading the site, you should get to help pick who writes on it.  I really appreciate all the feedback that came in during the audition process, it was a great help.  Of course, everyone that let me know their thoughts is entered to win the prize; I’ll announce the winner tomorrow.

Choosing a Writer
As I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed getting to know all three of the writers. They were great to work with and each brought different strengths and insights to their articles.  I was really struggling with choosing someone when a friend of mine made an interesting suggestion, “why don’t you just hire them all”?

I laughed at first but the more I thought about it the more I realized it was a pretty good idea.  Each person gives a different perspective on personal finance, with different genders, age ranges, financial experiences, and life roles represented.  I sat down to do the numbers and it was immediately obvious it wouldn’t be possible to bring on three writers. I was excited, however, to see that two would be feasible; I just had to figure out how to make the final decision.

In the end, the deciding factor was reader feedback and I’m pleased to announce that you, the readers, have chosen both Erik and Connie to share their personal finance wisdom with us!  Thanks to all the writers for their contributions, I’ll give a review below, and thanks to the readers for your feedback.

Erik shared his experience of getting out of debt and provided an online banking review looking at both ING Direct Orange Savings and Electric Checking.  I asked each writer to write a small investing series from a list of topics and Erik chose investing with ETF’s:

Henry gave us his confession about credit card debt and how he beat it.  He also took a look at one of the most popular online payment systems in his PayPal review.  Henry’s investing series covered putting your money into the Biotech sector:

Connie shared how her daughter’s first movie, Kung Fu Panda, offered some lessons on how to become a millionaire.  She then talked about which credit score & monitoring service has helped her out in True Credit review.  Connie took a look at investing in commodities for her investing series:

Thanks again to the readers for the feedback and congrats to Connie and Erik, I look forward to working with you both!

Posted on August 6th, 2008 in Other | 3 Comments

Written by Ben Edwards · Filed Under Other 

Save Money on Gas with Rewards Cards, Gas Rebates, Working from Home, & More!

Saving money on gas can be as simple as using gas rewards credit cards and as complicated as moving to a new town.  The price of gas was heavy on my mind yesterday as I filled up the tank after a weekend trip.  I started thinking about the wide range of money saving techniques people use to save on gas, here are some tips I’ve seen in action.

Gas Rebates
Saving on gas with gas rebates is something I’ve talked about before but I have to keep mentioning it. As the price of gas goes up, so do the gas rebates that they’re offering.  Our grocery store was running a special today, take your grocery receipt to the store owned gas station and save 25 cents off each gallon of gas.

These are unadvertised specials but they always seem to happen on Sundays. The gas clerk confirmed this pattern and said this was one of the best deals they’ve ever offered on gas.  So keep an eye on your local grocery chain if any of them have attached gas stations, especially on the weekends.

There was one guy at the gas station who had 6 gas cans in the back of his truck that he filled up before topping off his tank.  At 25 cents discount per gallon he saved a good chunk of change by “pre-buying” his gas.  I struck up a conversation with him in line that leads to the next way to save money on gas.

Gas Credit Cards
The guy with 6 gas cans was actually going to use two different credit cards to pay for the gas he had purchased.  The last time he had tried this approach he’d bought so much gas that he triggered the maximum gas purchase on his credit card.  He came prepared this time with both a Chase Freedom card and an American Express Blue Cash card.

Hey if you’re going to buy that much gas, why not earn some cash back on it? Those are both cards I mentioned in my review of the best gas credit cards to save you money at the pump.  The complexity level of this one is pretty low, simply pay with the gas rewards card and earn cash back.

Fuel Efficient Transportation
While the first two tips were about saving money on the gas you purchase, the next few cover reducing the amount of gas you use.  Several people at my office have started riding the bus to work and that’s cut way back on the gas they use each week.

Another of my co-workers bought a Toyota Prius Hybrid several years back when they first came out.  Most people couldn’t believe he waited 6 months and then paid a premium price for the hybrid car at the time but now they eye the gas mileage enviously.  In fact, his talk of savings talked another guy on his team into buying a Prius Hybrid. Plus the new Prius owner is saving even more money because he started carpooling in addition to having a fuel efficient car.

Working from Home
The next tip is more complex and could involve changing jobs. While it’s not a four day work week a former co-worker of mine took another job that lets him work from home on Wednesdays.  It wasn’t the sole deciding factor in his move but it certainly played a role.  In an even bigger step, one of his buddies is actually switching jobs so that he can tele-commute full time. 

The amount of money they’re saving by cutting out one or all of the commute days each week is substantial. Of course your company may not have these policies in place so you might have to work with your boss to save money on gas.

Moving Closer
The most involved tip I’ve seen in action so far is the strategy of moving closer to your regular driving destination.  My parent’s neighbors were both commuting between two different cities every day.  When gas prices were low it wasn’t a problem but their fuel bill was getting so high they decided to pack up and move. 

One of the people on my team at work drives over a hundred miles round trip to work and back each day.  He spends over $600 a month in gas, which is one of the reasons he’s considering moving out of the boonies and closer into town.

Gas Saving Summary
As I mentioned, each of these approaches requires different levels of changes in your life.  Using gas credit cards  and getting gas rebates is pretty easy while moving everything you own is a much bigger deal.  The nice thing is, it’s a free country so the choice of whether we want to follow some of the gas saving techniques or none of them is up to us.  I’d recommend at least starting small & easy and working your way up to bigger gas saving changes.

Posted on August 4th, 2008 in Credit Cards, Gas, Saving | 3 Comments

Written by Ben Edwards · Filed Under Credit Cards, Gas, Saving 

Personal Finance Review – Family Edition

We spent most of this weekend with our extended families. I’ll admit I had some stress and anxiety over this. Our families do not always get along, and there was a ton of work to be done around our house – none of which actually got done. When we finally got home and started getting ready for the week I found myself uncharitably thinking – What was my time worth?

Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in the challenges of day to day life, and the frustration of things interfering in our schedules. But when you get right down to it, what’s more important?

We spend a lot of time talking about what our time is worth on the job, and how to calculate our true hourly wage. I have a different question for you today – What is your time with your family worth? When you calculate it against your hourly worth, you can put a number on it, but the part of me that refuses to operate by numbers says there’s a much higher value to that time.

For those of us (myself included) who would really say that the time spent with our families is worth everything – I wonder, how often does your job interfere with your family time? How often do you feel stress because you are not working when you think you probably should be? How do you deal with it?

The Week In Review:

Writer auditions are still going on! You can leave your feedback for a chance to win one of two $50 prizes!

Excellent articles from the Money Writers:

  • Jeremy over at Generation X Finance gave us a very detailed article on the importance of diversifying your investment portfolio. (With real examples!)
  • Silicon Valley Blogger at the Digerati Life wrote about how she masters her mindless spending, and plugs those holes in the monthly budget.
  • Madison at My Dollar Plan discusses how to make early IRA withdrawals. While this is normally not a good idea, there are certain expenses and life events that qualify you to take your money out early. This is a nice concise article that tells you what you need to know – worth a bookmark!
  • Frugal Trader at Million Dollar Journey did his regular net worth review. This was fascinating to me. So may times we just see articles highlighting “10 ways to save money!” and it’s rare to see a blogger put his money where is blog is and bare all.
  • Brip Blap gives us some very sage advice: Stay away from the news! Yes. I totally agree. This is why we do not have cable. The internet is as full of news as everything else, but I can click that nifty little x in the top corner and shut up the talking heads any time I want. Somehow, I never seemed to shut the T.V. off the same way.
  • Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money gives us the lowdown on what he earned from his blog last month, and what his expenses were.
  • Sun at The Sun’s Financial Diary compares the savings accounts at Emigrant Direct and WT Direct. I was sad to hear the Emigrant Direct has cut their APY. I have recommended them for a while now – but no more. He also did his net worth review. Dare we compare?

Article highlights from The Money Blog Network:

Around the Blog-o-sphere:

Thanks to 2Paupers and the Carnival of Living Cheaply – August for featuring our articles. Thanks also to Megan @ Counting My Pennies for giving our Kung Fu Panda article a thumbs up!

Posted on August 3rd, 2008 in Personal Finance | Comments Off on Personal Finance Review – Family Edition

Written by Connie Brooks · Filed Under Personal Finance 

Six Ways You Can Earn Extra Money This Weekend

Here are a few ways you can earn $50 this weekend:

  • Donate a lot of blood
  • Spend a Saturday having a garage sale
  • Work 8 hours in a minimum wage job
  • Spend the afternoon as part of a survey focus group
  • Take the time to sell & ship old stuff on eBay

OR

Simply spend a few minutes giving me feedback on the writers. They’ve finished their audition writing and now it’s time to choose the writer you prefer. Check out the posts from the writers below:

Then let me know your opinion via the contact form. Each person that submits their opinion is entered to win one of two $50 cash prizes. Thanks for your feedback. Have a nice weekend!

Posted on August 2nd, 2008 in Personal Finance | 6 Comments

Written by Ben Edwards · Filed Under Personal Finance 

Biotech Investing – The Risks of Putting Your Money in Biotechnology

I spent the last post talking about stable biotech investments. The majority of these investments are in the pharmaceutical sector. In general, stable biotech investments are few and far between, as biotech investing is seen as one of the more risky investment strategies available. Fact is, many biotech firms fail: they fall quickly and fall hard. The flipside is that there is also a huge potential in biotech investment, but if you don’t have a fallback plan with other types of investments, don’t be surprised if you lose a mint.

What makes biotechnology such a risky investment is that the investor has to know how to read scientific reports. It’s not enough to read sales reports – for new biotech opportunities, these may not even be available. The trick is to not get too excited too quickly when you see that a drug or scientific discovery has passed a hurdle, such as a successful clinical trial. It can take the talents of statistician to understand a clinical trial: how many people are represented in the trial, what age, what gender, etc. Even a good sample size does not necessarily guarantee that a product is going to sell well or even work effectively.

If the stock market falls overall, you can expect biotech to fall even lower: it’s just that volatile. Also, it’s expensive to run a biotech company. Clinical trials cost a fair sum, so if the biotech company is testing out something new – and doesn’t have another high-performing product – the company’s going to take a major hit: and so are you. Though there’s a higher payout for stocks that aren’t rich with other investors, you are in greater danger of taking a fall. So riskier stocks are those companies that don’t have a diversified product base.

The Riskiest Biotech Investments

They say, “You can’t rush art.” Well, you can’t rush science either, so if you are an impatient investor who likes a simple form of investment, biotech is not the way to go. Some forms of biotech are wide open with limitless possibilities, but also seem to take forever to enter the mainstream. How long have we heard about “virtual reality” but there is no mainstream application of this technology. The same goes for something like Nanotechnology. It’s a hugely open field, but also in its infancy. You’re likely not going to see a return on your investment by next Wednesday. As fast as the world of technology moves, some investments could take decades to materialize, albeit for a whole lot of money.

Another shaky investment possibility is genetically modified food. Though the industry touts genetic engineering as potentially a way to solve world hunger, there is a limited – and dwindling – consumer base for these types of products. Put simply, there’s a backlash against GMO’s, as people become more health-conscious and more concerned about the safety of GMO’s.

Genetically-engineered medications are also problematic. Though they have great potential and the possibility of cutting down on clinical trials, the reality is that it can take 10 to 15 years for a genetically modified drug to gain FDA approval. Gene therapy has not yet panned out as a stable money-maker after being heralded as a revolution in medical biotechnology. Many gene therapies replace current drugs with a differing list of side effects, which has cut into their earning potential.

The trouble with biotech is that you cannot begin to predict how a new advancement will perform. So while in this day and age, green technologies offer great possibilities, there is the prospect that one green product will succeed and another will fail. This is true for every wing of biotech: pharmaceutical, agricultural, environmental, and so on. Not all biotech investments have the long-term prospects of nanotech. Some are plenty volatile in the short-term.

Writer Auditions – Author Henry Brown – Offer Your Feedback

Posted on August 1st, 2008 in Henry, Investing | Comments Off on Biotech Investing – The Risks of Putting Your Money in Biotechnology

Written by Henry · Filed Under Henry, Investing 

Biotech Investing: Top Performing Biotech Companies

If you read my primer yesterday on biotechnology investing you found out the basics of what comprises biotech and probably thought, “That’s great, but where do I put my money?” I’ll tailor this to those investors who aren’t independently wealthy or otherwise come to investing with a lot of capital. Those investors can’t afford to fail. Obviously, no one wants to lose money, but there’s a certain caliber of investor who’s more risk-averse than others, and because biotech investment is a particularly risky sort of investment, it can be a difficult prospect for a lower-roller investor.

Let’s take a look at the top biotech investments out there: good places to start if you’re an investor who’s a little gun shy. For every hot investment in biotech, there are countless poor-performers, so these stocks are a good way to get your feet wet. One thing to mention is that biotech is a pretty narrow field for investment. In no form of investment is “buzz” so important. At any one time only a few companies are performing or overperforming, so you’ve got to be extra careful.

Medical Biotech

Pharmaceutical biotech investing is the most stable of all the biotech fields, so this is where you should start. Though Genentech had some negative press recently which investors feared would send the stock tanking, it remained stable. Generally, Genentech is considered the standard-bearer for medical biotech investing, and the projections for the second quarter are healthy.

In pharmaceutical investing, cancer treatment is a big avenue for investment. However, there are some biotech companies, such as Northfield Laboratories, that focus on one type of therapy. Though this could be lucrative, you should be looking at a biotech firm that has a diversification in the medical field – as not all therapies take off and some can even be met with lawsuits. So not only should your own investments be diversified, the investments themselves should be diverse.

Genentech is a diverse company, and with the pickup of cancer drug Avastin, it is expanding at a healthy clip. Avastin is set to take in 0ver $660 million in sales. As mentioned, not all pharmaceuticals pay out to such a degree, so Genentech does have its share of underperformers, but this is balanced by the success of other drugs and new acquisitions.

Another solid investment is Biogen Idec, which had first-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations. Another pharma stock, Biogen is selling a lot of pharmaceuticals. Partly the profits are due to prices going up, but not entirely – this is true across the board for the big pharma biotech corporations. In a fairly unstable investment sector, you can feel confident that people are always going to want to find ways to stay healthy and new advancements in the industry are guaranteed.

Rounding out the top performers: Genzyme, aka Isis Pharmaceuticals, and Cephalon. Amgen has recently fallen on some harder times, as has Gilead Sciences.

Writer Auditions – Author Henry Brown – Offer Your Feedback

Posted on July 31st, 2008 in Henry, Investing | 1 Comment

Written by Henry · Filed Under Henry, Investing 


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