Credit Blocking

It's always a good idea (before your identity is theft and you find yourself in trouble without committing any sin) to block any illegal application to credit cards by someone out there using your name. You can instruct the credit bureaus to make it mandatory for credit cards to verify any such application by calling you at your residential number.

You can do this by going online to websites of all 3 bureaus or just by calling them (through automatic service). REMEMBER: To instruct the bureaus again if you move from your old place and get a new telephone number. Otherwise, your own legitimate applications will be unnecessarily delayed... Here are contact information for three Credit Bureaus:

Equifax Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc
P.O. Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374
To order report: 1-800-685-1111
To report fraud: 1-800-525-6285

Experian National Consumer Assistance Center
PO Box 2002 Allen, TX 75013
To order report: 1-888-397-3742
To report fraud: 1-888-397-3742

Transunion Consumer Disclosure Center
P.O. Box 1000 Chester, PA 19022
To order report: 1-800-888-4213
To report fraud: 1-800-916-8800

Hi APY Savings Accounts

If you have some cash that you are saving for some short term goal (like buying a home or a car) and do not wish to invest that in any risky account (like stock, mutual fund or even bond or certificate of deposit which blocks your money for a certain term), here are some good options for savings accounts where you'll enjoy high interest rate with the convenience of easy access whenever you want to withdraw for your use:

HSBCdirect is giving 4.80% until April 30th in online savings account with minimum deposit of $1 only. The rate will probably return to 4.50% from May 1.
Emigrant-direct's rate (which was leading until recently) for savings account is 4.50% with no minimum.
Citibank.com's e-savings account is also offering 4.50% without any minimum requirements.
PayPal.com money market account currently has a yield of 4.49% with no minimum (not FDIC insured though)
MyBankingDirect is giving 4.55% in Money Market Account with minimum deposit of $5000.
IngDirect.com The current yield is 4.00% with no minimum.
MetLife is giving 4.00% in its Money Market Account with minimum deposit of $5000.
AmboyDirect is probably trying to give high interest but its conditions (e.g., initial $5000 earn no interest, etc) are so complicated and confusing that we felt it's better to avoid it. If you wish to try to understand what they are trying to say, please check it yourself.

[Note: LiveInUSA has no connection whatsoever with the above-mentioned banks. We are giving such information only because we think this would be useful to our readers]

Gasoline Gouging

With increasing woes of drivers throughout the nation, President Bush called for more vigilance on gas gouging. A number of cases of gas gouging have been detected in NY and surrounding areas during the time of Hurricane Katrina. According to AAA, the average for a gallon of regular hit $2.97 today and surely it'll hit $3.00 within a few days. In fact, Pacific coast states are already paying an average of $3.05.

According to Department of Energy, for every dollar that we pay for gas, 55c go to the price of crude oil, 22c to refining cost, 4c to the cost of distribution and marketing and 19c to taxes.

Here are a few websites which may come to your use for finding gas prices in your area:
Find out which gas station in your town has the best fuel prices by searching the handy state-by-state list at GasBuddy.com.
You may find the lowest gas prices in your neighborhood by visiting GasPriceWatch.com .
You can use AAA's fuelcostcalculator.com to find out the cost of making a trip by putting information about your starting point and destination.

Free Directory Assistance

When you dial 411 for directory assistance, you need to pay an average of $1.25 per call. That is what prompted the creation of a news crop of 800 services offering free directory assistance. Here are 3 of those: 1-800-411-SAVE launched this month and 1-800-FREE-411 and 1-800-411-METRO which were rolled out last fall.

If you call these numbers, you will find the same service as 411, but instead of you paying for it, the cost is covered by businesses who have offers you may be interested in. You first have to listen to a commercial for up to 15 seconds. So, it's like Google or Yahoo offering you advertisements depending on the business phone number that you are trying to find out. If you are interested in an offer, they will connect you free of charge. If not you'll just receive the information you've asked for.

Cheap Magazines

If you have time to read magazines and have money to spend on them but what you actually want is to spend less to read them, here is a useful website for you.

MagazinePriceSearch.com collects the best discount offers for 2500 titles. For example, you may get a year of Popular Mechanics for $6.99 (Amazon.com as well as the magazine's website offer it at $12). Similarly, while NewYorker.com offers its annual subscription at $47, you may get it at $21 from this website. Here are some more currently available cheap offers: Forbes ($5.94 for 26 issues), Kiplinger ($4.91 for 36 issues) US News and World Report ($8.73 for 52 issues).

[Disclaimer: LiveInUSA has no connection whatsoever with website(s) mentioned above. The information here is being provided only because we think this could benefit our readers]

Price Drop in PlayStation 2

Photo: PS3 to hit market in November

Sony is dropping the price of its PlayStation 2 (PS2) video game console to 129 dollars from 149 dollars in an attempt to boost sales before the company launches the PS3 in November. The PS2 is the world's leading game console, having sold over 101 million units globally since its launch in March 2000, compared with 24 million Microsoft Xbox units and 21 million Nintendo GameCube units.

The price cut comes a month after the Japanese-based company announced that it was postponing the launch of the PS3 until early November due to technical hitches. Sony has dominated the games console market for many years, but in recent times has faced fierce competition from both Microsoft and Nintendo.

The PS3 will compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360, which went on sale last December in Europe, and Nintendo's Revolution, which is due for release in the 4th quarter of this year.

Act In Time

Coronary heart disease is America's No. 1 killer. Stroke is No. 3 and a leading cause of serious disability. Each year, about 1.1 million Americans suffer a heart attack. It is thus very important to reduce your risk factors by knowing the warning signs, and keeping yourself absolutely confident about how exactly to respond quickly and properly if warning signs occur.

The following are warning signs: Chest discomfort, uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain; Discomfort in other areas of the upper body like one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach; Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort; Breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute , with a few partner organizations, have launched a new "Act in Time" campaign to increase people's awareness of heart attack and the importance of calling 9-1-1 immediately at the onset of heart attack symptoms. For details, visit their website 'Act in Time to Heart Attack Signs'. Please be prepared and save yourself and your dearest ones.

Safest Cars

Kia Sedona

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released its report on crash tersts of small cars and minivans. In the minivan category, the Korean-made Kia Sedona earned the Institute's "Gold Top Safety Pick" award, getting top marks for front crash, side crash and whiplash protection. In the small car category, the Subaru Impreza, the closely-related Saab 9-2X and the Honda Civic earned "Gold Top Safety Pick" awards.

The institute also tested Toyota Prius gas/electric hybrid vehicle and according to the report, the car got top marks for front and side impact protection when equipped with optional side airbags, but without side airbags, its side impact protection was "Poor".

In the minivan category, the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Nissan Quest minivans all earned "Good" ratings for front and side impact protection. The worst-performing minivans in were the Dodge Caravan, the closely related Chrysler Town & Country and the Mazda MPV. The poorest-performing small cars were the Suzuki Forenza and Reno, Saturn Ion and Kia Spectra.

Tax: In Case You Can't ..

Your 2005 taxes are due by midnight of Monday, April 17, 2006. In case you are not prepared to submit yet, here are some useful information:

Individual Extension: You can now use Form 4868 to obtain a single automatic 6-month extension (which used to be 4-months until last year). Form 2688, which was meant for getting a second extension, has been eliminated. By filing for an extension you will avoid the late filing penalty (5% per month with a maximum of 25%), but you will still be subject to interest and late payment penalty in case you owe any taxes.

Business Extension: Starting January 1, 2006, all eligible business taxpayers can use form 7004 to request an automatic 6-month extension to file returns. In prior years, non-corporate business taxpayers had to request an initial 3-month extension, and then another 3-month extension, if needed.

Here is the link to all kinds of Forms and Instructions from IRS website.

Google Calender

Today Google launched a new Web-based calendar service that will let users schedule meetings and events using their own words. The Beta version of Google Calendar is available here. Its service initially will be integrated with Google's Gmail e-mail service.

Online calenders are in abundance in web including one by Yahoo. But Google's calender is surely coming up with lots of new advantages as we describe below:

Google Calendar users will be able to create new events directly out of their Gmail messages, or they can also use a feature called QuickAdd in order to add appointments using natural language, typing "lunch with Thomas at 12:30 am Friday," to create a new calendar entry, for example. Once a event is created, Google Calendar can also send out e-mail invitations to other participants and send event reminders and, if needed, send change notifications to the Google user. Google Calendar will also allow users to search for and then subscribe to publicly available calendars -- the schedule of shows of a specific movie in a neighborhood theatre, for example -- and then integrate that information into their own calendars. It will also let users share their calendars with others using the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology.

Agent's Share

The value of your home might have increased quite a bit but it's actually only 94% of what you think the price should be! A 6% commission is taken away by the real estate agents. For a long time both buyers and sellers were nurturing this grudge inside their mind while making the transaction, but things are changing for the better. A new breed of realtors are coming up to sneak into the market just by addressing this issue of importance.

BuySideRealty.com, which has launched in California, Illinois and Florida and expects to be nationwide by early 2008, returns 3/4th of the buyer's agent's share to clients.

Seattle, Washington based Redfin.com, which is also expanding to California this year, rebates 2/3rd of its commissions.

RebateReps.com gives back 1% of the home's selling price (about 1/3rd the commission) to buyers.

They are mainly taking advantage of the growing trend among potential buyers to use internet in making a choice, thus allowing buyers to do much of their work and in that process giving them back a portion of the traditionally fat commission. These agents are thus getting more transactions in their hands than what the traditional brokers are having.

Not-so-well-known Airlines

In last few years we all got used to hearing the buzz surrounding discount airlines JetBlue and Southwest. But, if you wish to explore a little more, some of the best deals around are on airline you've never heard of. According to the Department of Transportation, there are some 60 small airlines offering chartered flights to the public, often with scheduled service. Some have every amenity that the wellknown big airlines provide. Here are some examples:

-- North American Airlines flies Boeing 757s and 767s, and it has leather seats and handheld video players on flights to Hawaii from Oakland. Fare? One-way fares start at $125. Fair?
-- Allegiant Air flies to Las Vegas from 21 U.S. cities. Fares start at $57.
-- TransMeridian, which flies to Orlando from the northeast and midwest, offers 1st class on most flights.

Any drawbacks? Yes. There are. These airlines usually use secondary airports. Sometimes there's just one flight in a day. Some of the days could be completely blank. Not all travel agents (online or otherwise) include those in their program. Sites like Orbitz.com may include some of these names in their searches.

To reserve a seat, visit the homepages through links above or you may also search the website of your destination airport which will enlist all airlines serving it.

Survivorship Life Insurance

Continuing our weekly postings on life insurance ....[Our past postings: Life Insurance in general, Term Insurance, Permanent Insurance]

Our today's topic is a special kind of permanent life insurance: the Survivorship life insurance. Survivor Life policies pay a death benefit only after both insureds die. These policies are typically purchased by couples who have sizable assets and want to maximize the amount they leave to heirs or charities by allowing the beneficiaries to use the death proceeds to pay inheritance taxes.

Survivorship universal life (SUL) and survivor variable universal life(SVUL) simply combine the features of survivorship life with universal life and variable life in one policy (consult our past posting). Because a survivorship life policy pays benefits only after both insureds die, it's usually a less expensive option than buying two seperate policies.