All Posts Tagged With: "financial information"
Today’s Ebook – Privacy Choices for Your Personal Financial Information
Chris McClelland | RSS | Tue, Oct 20 2009 | 2 CommentsToday’s featured ebook download is Privacy Choices for Your Personal Financial Information (77 KB, 6 pg) – A small booklet that explains your right to opt out of sharing some of your personal information and lists the types of information that financial companies can share about you. An interesting read for anyone wanting to know more on the subject of privacy.
What you can learn from this ebook
You’ve probably been receiving privacy notices from banks and other financial companies. These notices
explain:
• What personal financial information the company collects
• Whether the company intends to share your personal financial information with other companies
• What you can do, if the company intends to share your personal financial information, to limit some of that sharing
• How the company protects your personal financial information.
Financial companies share information for many reasons: to offer you more services, to introduce new products, and to profit from the information they have about you. If you like to know about other products and services, you may want your financial company to share your personal financial information; in this case, you don’t need to respond to the privacy notice. If you prefer to limit the promotions you receive or do not want marketers and others to have your personal financial information, you must take some important steps.
First, it is important to read these privacy notices. They explain how the company handles and shares your personal financial information. Keep in mind that not all privacy notices are the same. This guide tells you about the other steps you can take to help protect the privacy of your personal financial information.
To download this ebook, or any of our current ebooks, please visit the ebook page where you may choose the ebook(s) you wish to download. *Download an ebook by clicking on it’s title.* Related posts:
Why You Should be Using a Personal Finance Tool
Tags: share information, financial information, Today's Ebook - Privacy Choices for Your Personal Finan
Toys R Us acquires FAO Schwartz
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Fri, May 29 2009 | 1 Comment
Toy retailer FAO Schwartz announced Wednesday that Toys R Us Incorporated, the largest United States toy retailer, would be acquiring the high-end retailer.
Once upon a time, FAO Schwartz was the store every small child wanted to visit. I know that after watching “Big” (with Tom Hanks) the first time, the store was quite appealing to my 5 year old mind.
The good news in the acquisition is that Schwartz will still have the opportunity to work with small toy vendors and cut costs. It will also continue to operate its marquee store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Of course specialty stores like FAO Schwartz have been hurting in a down economy while everyone was doing their toy shopping at large discount stores like Target and Wal-Mart. They have also been battling online retailers who don’t have to pay so much overhead to run the businesses and can keep costs down that way.
It became so bad in December 2008, that Toys R Us’s largest retailer, K.B. Toys couldn’t make it through the busiest time of the year for toy retailers, Christmas, that they had to close up shop and liquidate all of the stores it owned.
As far as the acquisition goes, there wasn’t any financial information given from Toys R Us or FAO Schwartz, but the general theory is that Toys R Us got a fairly good deal on the high end toy store and got it for “very, very cheap.”
FAO Schwartz only operates two company stores, one in New York and one in Las Vegas. The deal with Toys R Us allows FAO to continue operating the two stores and retain store employees.
It seems that Toys R Us is becoming the next Best Buy. While they aren’t ready to take on Wal-Mart or Target, the company has taken over or outsold other toy stores across the country and internet. In February, it acquired eToys.com, a website that was then operating under bankruptcy protection.
FAO Schwarz doesn’t release its financial information as it is a privately held company. Without giving any sales information, it replaced the company’s CEO Ed Schmults with Barry Erdos. Erdos was the former president of Bluefly.com, a fashion website.
In this case, it is good that Toys R Us bought FAO Schwartz because otherwise the company may have just gone under and never heard from again. Also since Toys R Us is allowing the company to continue operations and run its company stores, FAO Schwartz will hopefully keep going even though the company may keep going.
Related posts:Wal-Mart hopes to boost holiday sales with low priced toys
Toys R Us wants you to remember that the holiday season is just around the corner
Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy all try something new
Tags: toys r us, down economy, specialty stores
Identity Theft
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sun, Sep 21 2008 | 0 CommentsWith all the financial information coming through the wire services, identity theft is not getting the spotlight it once did. However, it is still happening, and for many Americans, is something that should be watched more closely than the financial sector of the stock market.
I’m not meaning to cause alarm, because some of you have much more to worry about in these troubling times, but here’s some tips to keep your identity safe in the mean time.
Shred all documents. I bought a cross cut paper shredder from Wal-Mart for $20…prior to that many of our personal documents would be torn into maybe 4 or 8 pieces and thrown into the trash. That was obviously not the best option.
Never EVER respond to an email asking for personal information, by now most people know this. However, there are some emails that can look particularly legitimate. For example, the IRS is looking for your information via email and you filed online. They won’t ask for personal information through an email. Call them instead to make sure.
And one little thing you can do: Cover your card number when you pay for something in a check out line. I’ve seen people try to take pictures of my credit card number, but I keep the numbers covered with my index finger and always scan it myself. At the same time, I have to trust wait staff at restaurants, perhaps I shouldn’t (recently a waitress in a Memphis restaurant was caught with a scanner that would scan and save card numbers).
Just remember this is still going on, even if your mind is elsewhere. Keep a watchful eye on your credit.
Related posts:Today’s Ebook – Identity Theft and Your Social Security Number
Today’s Ebook – ID Theft: What It’s All About
Today’s Ebook – Identity Theft
Tags: memphis, credit card, shred
