Sabrina’s Money Matters

Okay, not so much breaking news as it is breaking news to me…but Lifelock has been sued by Experian the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Feb. 13, was talked about on The Alabama Consumer Law blog where I read it on 2-21-08 and explains why, here’s an excerpt:

Experian claims that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the 90-day alerts are intended for consumers who believe they have become the victim of fraud or will likely become a victim.

The act also stipulates that only consumers or representatives - such as a parent - can sign up for fraud alerts.

Experian argues that by continuously enrolling its customers in fraud alerts, LifeLock is costing credit-reporting agencies money.

Furthermore, Experian also contends that LifeLock does not do enough to let consumers know that they could obtain many of the services it offers on their own for free.

“LifeLock is leading consumers to believe that the service it is providing is something consumers couldn’t do themselves and they have to pay a fee for what is a legal right under federal law,” said Peg Smith, executive vice president in Experian’s Costa Mesa, Calif. office. “We believe what’s happening here is LifeLock is not providing adequate disclaimers to consumers about the fact that these are free for consumers who are truly victims of fraud.”

While I’m not sure I agree with the author of that blog, because if all Lifelock is doing is continuously hitting your credit with fraud alerts and signing up so many customers, the credit market will have everyone having fraud alerts, and thus lessen the seriousness of the alert. The more people see this coming up when they pull credit, the more and more people that have this issue, the less serious it will seem.

Compare it to watching the news. We see it everyday, so we stop caring so much at each instance of pain, torture, theft, murder, or crime in general unless it hits our hot button. Same thing with the fraud alerts, the more they are placed on people that don’t really need it, the less serious it will seem to those who decide if you’re credit worthy. This will cost us money. If you’re paying $10 a month to Lifelock, unenroll right now because this system is designed to hurt us. I say circular logic is faulty logic and Lifelock doing this reeks of stupid.

Not to mention, you have all you need here to lock your credit report, without a fraud alert. AND I’ve shown you how to set up a fraud alert if you really need it (and having a police report makes a credit lock free), pull your credit, read your report, dispute inaccuracies…what more could you ask for?

We all want to make money quickly, painlessly, some of us play the lottery religiously even though we know the odds are stacked against us, even if we win!

So what’s a person to do to make money enough to retire on and actually have a little fun in life? Read on. Don’t waste your money, spend the time to learn a little and read great posts from experts who know.

SMCStreet.com
I’ve done numerous articles like this before, I can spot the commercials easily. Don’t buy into this folks, it’s not worth your time or your money. I assure you that you can find much better programs, much better products and much better coaching elsewhere and for free.

NewFuture.com
If you want to buy gold and you want to buy oil, you do not want to buy it here. Invest in smarter things with more reputable companies.

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The first three are my absolute favorites, I’ve been reading these blogs, some since their inception.

Work at home jobs.
www.DailyTelecommuter.com

Learn how to blog on the internet.
www.StartBlogging.net

Programs you want to try, check them out here and on I’ve Tried That.com, they can recommend numerous programs that they’ve personally tried and can virtually insure your investment, and you can’t beat the no nonsense way they bust the scams.
www.IveTriedThat.com

Great affiliate sales advice and a no nonsense approach to selling, thinking outside the box and making money.
www.ShoeMoney.com

Entertaining and informative in the blogging world..not to be mistaken for JOHN CHOW at JohnChow.com who is also a great source of information for making money on the internet, my favorite of the two however is that Royal Cow.
www.JohnCow.com

Ultimately it is up to you if you want to get involved in a program like this, but there are much better sources of information that are free, when what you pay for is less than stellar. What’s worse is sometimes the information you buy and the products, they are dated and you couldn’t sell it if you wanted to, so you decide you want to make your money back, not gonna happen.

Use your money smarter, research the right kind of investments and invest for the long term, in my opinion, and it’s only an opinion, that’s the smart way to go. Please don’t mistake this as financial advice on a professional level, think of it more like a friend telling you to avoid “XYZ Supermarket” because the prices are inflated and the produce looks terrible.

Stick around, browse and look at the other sites I’ve researched for you and get acquainted with me and Sabrina’s Money Matters, I’m here to save you money, show you how to make a little easy side money and have some fun too.

You can do paid surveys with free survey site Survey Savvy.

Or if you already have a blog, you can sign up to do paid reviews for free through PayPerPost.

Ask me about it if you have any questions or look through my reviews category and check out how I do them, not too hard really.

So don’t be a stranger and thanks for coming!

Monday I told you guys that we went and spent around $50 to get supplies and paint to change the look of our kitchen and dining area…well today I have pictures of the before and after for you!

We love these things don’t we?

Of Course!

I’ll let the pictures speak for me…

Okay, those are the before photos, I didn’t get much of our dining area in there, but you got the idea. It was great at first because the walls were OUR walls so they looked great, but we’d gotten bored with the neutral colors.

So here is our new kitchen / dining area:

That is before we put our decorations and fixtures back up.

That was just of the kitchen area where all the magic happens..

And that was a view where you could see the red on the island as well as the rich yellow behind it. We love it and now the rest of the house looks much more dull than before. Tomorrow I’ll post pictures of the blinds we painted to match! Wow, what $50 bucks can still get you…

See you tomorrow - same channel!

This year I got inspired when I received a few gifts. I was given dishes, a place setting for four people, that match my decor in my kitchen. We’ve been going for a sort of Italian/Tuscan Bistro type of a look, at least those colors anyways. We like the rich mustard yellow and the depth of the dark reds and greens often used in Italian decor. I got a few other things that further compliment our style in our home and what’s really great is I was lucky enough to receive a gift card for a substantial amount!

Here’s the inspiration part I promised, lol. I used my gift card to buy paint and paint supplies to paint my kitchen the colors that will complete our look for that room. I’ll post pictures here tomorrow when we’re finished with it all, we started last night after going out to buy the supplies on a spur of the moment type decision. I toyed with buying a new game for my Nintendo DS, or buying clothes from my favorite store, I could always use more to wear to work.

But I finally decided what greater reward and appreciation of the gift than to use it for something that won’t wear out for at least ten years, guaranteed?

It’s something that the whole family can appreciate. That’s what I call a gift! When the room is done I plan to send a thank you card to the person that gave me that card with pictures of what they enabled me to get with their ever so gracious gift.

So here’s what we got at Wal-mart:

One $10.00 kit of painting supplies with:

2 rollers
An extension for the roller wand;
& A pan we can use the rollers in with paint.

2 cans of paint, $12.50 each for Semi-Gloss:
1 in a rich maroon
& 1 in “Golden Sun”.

(We had a drop cloth already from our new home owner’s kit).

We took a painting from the wall our kitchen to compare the swatches of color with and had them color matched.

So far we’re very pleased with the outcome and we only spent around $35. We’re painting part of our dining room and our entire kitchen, our island and a hallway.

That’s a lot of damage. ;D

This just goes to show you can make a big change in your home without spending a small fortune, sure we’ll decorate further, but over time. We got our paintings at a local discount store and, well the rest you’ll see when I post the photos - stay tuned!

All of you have a safe and very enjoyable New Year’s Eve and I hope you don’t have too bad of a hangover to stop by tomorrow to see what I’ve been doing on my New Year’s.

Note to my regular readers: You may have noticed a few of changes in the sidebar - all the same stuff is there, I just cleaned it up a little for your uncluttered viewing pleasure.

See you tomorrow - same channel!