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How To Protect Your Financial Privacy
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| Transaction Records Today, part of your financial situation becomes a record in a database when you apply for credit, order by mail, pay your taxes, buy a car, etc. Usually, transaction records are not a problem, but databases do give strangers access to information you may not want them to have. Occasionally, the problem isn't annoyance but fraud. Unavoidable Disclosure You can't avoid some loss of your privacy. If you want a mortgage or other credit, you have to disclose details about your income and assets. No disclosure, no loan. You also can't control the distribution of some information. For example, motor vehicle registrations, real estate transactions, and property tax payments are public records. And you have to authorize continuing scrutiny of your credit history if you want the convenience of a charge card. You can't stop the recording of information on your finances, but you certainly can do more to protect your privacy. |
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Guard Your Social Security Number
The first rule of information control is: make your data available only when
there is a real need for someone else to know it. Your Social Security number is
the key to most automated information sharing and record matching. Make sure you
give out your number only when necessary. Unless you are paying your income
taxes, don't put your Social Security number on your checks and don't keep your
number in your wallet. A lost or stolen wallet with your Social Security number
can make it easy for someone else to obtain new credit in your name. Many banks,
investment funds, and other organizations where you may have an account use
Social Security numbers for telephone access to account information. You may
want to request that you be able to use another number.
Rely More On Cash
When you choose to pay with checks or credit cards, you are also choosing to
give out information about where you bank and your address (if it's on your
checks). A check or credit card also means a detailed record of what, when, and
where you buy. You can easily eliminate these purchase records by using more
cash when you buy and having your receipts made out to cash.
I once received a thank you card in
the mail from a waiter that had waited on my wife and I at a restaurant. At
first it actually gave me an uncomfortable feeling. I think he got my
information from my credit card! I didn't write back to ask.
Call Carefully
Using an 800 number is a convenient cost saver, but not if the company you call
isn't reputable. Your call can be the electronic source of your name and address
for undesirable solicitation lists or worse if you give out a credit card number
to someone who misuses it. Make sure you know the companies you call are
legitimate businesses. You'll eliminate possible problems and a source of future
unwanted phone calls.
Clean Your Name Off Lists
Major mail-order companies are careful about whom they allow to use their lists
of customers. But you can ask companies you buy from not to release your name to
others. You can also have your name eliminated from mass mailing lists by
writing to the Direct Marketing Association (P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY
11735).
Take Reasonable Care
Protecting your financial privacy is mostly a matter of taking care. Be careful
to avoid revealing more than you need to, especially your Social Security
number. And be careful about the organizations and persons you give information
to -- directly or indirectly.
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Copyright © 1994-2010 Cook & Co. Toll-Free Nationwide 1-800-551-6253 or 6254 Main Tel. 256-586-4111 Fax 256-586-4138 Bara Business Center 124 South Main Street Arab, Alabama 35016 Direct Phone Lines From Birmingham: 322-7452 Huntsville: 534-6922 Cook & Co., Enrolled Agents are licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Greg Cook is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed by the states of Alabama and Tennessee. [ Greg Cook ] [ Disclosure ] [ Privacy Policy ] [ Terms of Use ] [ barabusiness.com ] |
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