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The Seattle Area is
Still Flourishing

·
Consumer confidence is the highest it has been since
mid 2005
·
Interest rates are in the low 6’s for 30 year loans
·
Boeing: Employment up 12,000 people since last year
·
787 Biggest launch in history—first jet out in 2008
·
Microsoft: Employment increasing 4,000 per year
·
Crane Index: 31 cranes in the region—second only to
Manhattan
·
Car license transfers: near record highs
·
Sea-Tac traffic: Setting new records each quarter
·
Commercial vacancy: Lowest level since 1999
o
King County 8%
o
Snohomish 11%
o
Pierce 17%
·
Listing to Pending Ratio: 4:1 (Stays a Seller’s
market until we reach 5:1, then it becomes a
Balanced Market)
·
While California suffers in the housing crisis, the
economy of nearby Washington state is flourishing
with strong job growth and some of the highest
appreciation in home prices in the nation.
Read more from this Reuter’s in depth article.
·
Seattle
home values hottest in U.S.
Prices up 6.9 percent over last year.
Seattle-area home appreciation has been the hottest
in the nation for 11 months in a row, despite
steadily slowing for the past year and a half,
according to data released Tuesday 9/25.
Read more from this Seattle PI
article.
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* * *
Thinking of Identity Theft Insurance?

Here are some
things to consider
With
the increase in identity theft companies have begun
offering programs labeled as ID Theft Insurance.
Before you go out and purchase this coverage there
are a few things that you might want to know.
For
this article, I researched three services:
PrivacyGuard offered by Staples, LifeLock.com and
Debix.com
-
Debix costs $89 per year or $7.41 per month
-
The PrivacyGuard program offered by Staples
costs $99 for 18 months or $5.50 per month
-
LifeLock costs $120 per year or $10 per month
-
All three provide insurance for the expenses
associated with getting your ID back.
-
LifeLock offers $1,000
-
PrivacyGuard and Debix offer $10,000
-
PrivacyGuard and LifeLock both provide technical
help if your ID is stolen.
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Debix doesn't.
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PrivacyGuard and LifeLock both provide you with
yearly credit reports from the 3 credit
bureaus--which you can get free anyway.
-
Debix doesn't.
-
LifeLock and Debix use Fraud Alert as a means to
protect you. You can place this with the credit
bureaus yourself every 90 days for free.
-
Debix provides a much more complex system
for contacting you if someone tries to apply
for credit on your account.
The hitch with Fraud Alert is that "once you
activate an initial fraud alert, the consumer
credit reporting agency must include the alert
in your file and provide the alert along with
any credit score generated using your file.
The reporting agency receiving your initial
fraud alert must have reasonable procedures in
place to protect you from identity theft but is
not required to call you in order to authorize
new loans or activity related to your credit."
Only if you have already been the victim of
ID theft and have thus filed an Extended Fraud
Alert are Creditors required to call or contact
you in the manner you designate before
authorizing a new credit account.
So
unless Debix and LifeLock are actually somehow
filing an extended Fraud Alert for you--by lying
about the fact that your ID has been stolen (and
there's no indication that they are) there's no
guarantee this system will actually work as
advertised. At best it might be providing you
with a false sense of security. The best thing
about Fraud Alert is that it automatically
removes you from all pre-approved credit and
insurance offers for 2 years, thus reducing your
junk mail load and the potential that someone
might steal your mail and use the offers to
steal you ID.
-
The PrivacyGuard program uses daily credit
reports and alerts from one of the Credit
Bureaus to protect you.
The hitch with this is that you have to read
those to determine whether there's a problem or
not and you could easily get behind in checking
them since they report every time someone checks
your credit report along with alerts telling you
if something 'suspicious' happens.
It
appears that while placing a Fraud Alert might be
helpful it really provides no guarantee for safety
since no one is required to call you about opening
new accounts--until after you've already had ID
theft happen to you.
Daily
monitoring your credit report is a good idea but it
is by no means 'automatic' since you have to read
the reports and alerts that come to you. Basically
it’s the same thing as a fraud alert with you being
the one monitoring the activity rather than the
credit bureaus or the lenders.
If
buying this kind of coverage gives you a sense
security that’s fine. Just realize that it’s not
really ID Theft Insurance, it’s credit information
monitoring at best.
Just
this past month the major credit bureaus have
introduced a new way for you to combat ID Theft. For
a fee they will place a security freeze on your
account so that lenders and business cannot get
access to your credit files or scores without your
authorization. That makes it almost impossible for a
thief to get a credit card in your name and damage
your record. The Consumer Union’s “Guide
to Security Freeze Protection” gives you all the
information you need to use this new tool.
For
more information on the pros and cons of this new
service read Michelle Singletary's article, "Everyone
can now put credit on ice" in the Seattle PI. |