Business Finance Profile

Posts Tagged ‘buy’

Is it possible to purchase car insurance online? Most folks are used to purchasing their car insurance by leafing through a telephone book and calling local insurance agencies. When you call a local agency they usually request a copy of your current coverage in order to give you an accurate comparison as well as advice . This same process can happen with online quoting as well. The online quoting system will require you to post all pertinent insurance information to give you an accurate quote. You do more of the work but you are better informed when you complete the process.

Car Insurance Information Needed for Online Quoting

1. Expiration Date – The expiration date is critical because it proves that your insurance has not expired and that will qualify you for a preferred rate with most companies. If your insurance has expired then you may be underwritten into a substandard carrier and those rates are higher.

2. Driver Information – All resident relatives that have a driver’s license need to be rated on the policy. You will need to enter the name, date of birth, and driver’s license number.

3. Driving Record – Accidents and violations need to be disclosed to pre-qualify you for the insurance. This needs to be accurate because insurance companies will find out about your driving record anyway. They check motor vehicle reports from your state as well as your prior carrier.

4. Vehicle Information – You will have to list each vehicle on the policy. You will need the vehicle identification number for each vehicle. That number will give the insurance company the pertinent information that it needs to discount the vehicle for air bags, anti-lock brakes and other safety features.

5. Current Coverage – Use your declarations page to list all of the coverage that you currently have on all vehicles. This will include liability limits, first party benefits and physical damage limits.

With the ever rising reports of credit card fraud, fraudulent use, internet phishing and identity theft, people are rightly concerned about credit card security. Fraudulent credit card use can be an annoyance at best, and seriously damage your credit at worst. It’s only reasonable that people have questions about credit card security and authentication methods. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about credit card security.

1. How does the ATM or store terminal know my PIN number?

PIN (personal identification numbers) are the most often used way to authenticate your identity when you use your credit or ATM card. When you first choose your PIN number, it is ‘encrypted’ – stored in a secret code of letters and symbols – and either stored in a database or on the magnetic stripe on the back of your card.

2. If my PIN number is stored in a database, doesn’t that mean that bank or credit card employees have access to it?

The encryption method that’s used by ATM and credit cards is called ‘one-way encryption’. It makes it easy for the bank’s computer to verify the PIN given the bank’s key and the PIN, but nearly impossible to extract the PIN in text form from the encrypted database.

3. How does the machine ‘read’ my card?

The stripe on the back of your credit or ATM card is called a magnetic stripe. It’s actually made up of thousands of tiny magnetic iron-based particles. The card can be ‘written to’ much the same way that the hard drive on your computer can be written – by means of magnetic interaction changing the charge. Written into the stripe are your account number and identifying data. When you swipe the card, that information is read and sent via modem to an ‘acquirer’ – a company that ‘acquires’ a payment guarantee from the credit card company based on the information stored on your card’s magnetic stripe.

4. Isn’t buying on the internet dangerous and insecure?

Honestly? Your credit card information is in less danger being transmitted over the internet than it is when you hand your card to a store clerk at the counter. The real danger to your credit card information isn’t from hackers hitting online merchants, or stealing your credit card information via modem or phone lines. The real internet security dangers come from two different directions:

a. Hackers using back doors to get into the records of banks, credit card companies and data repositories.

This is the biggest danger. It’s also a danger for stores and companies that have records ‘online’ for billing purposes. There’s a great deal being done to improve security of data repositories, which are far more vulnerable than any data transmission stream.

b. The second big credit card security danger is the practice that’s sometimes called ‘phishing’. In this case, the credit card thieves trick you into giving them your identification and credit card data. They may do this with an email purporting to be from an official of your internet service provider or email, your credit card issuer or anyone else. They also may build sites that are identical to sites like Paypal, American Express and others for the express purpose of capturing your information so that they can use it.

5. How do I protect myself from phishers?

First, never provide your social security number or other identifying data to anyone without first verifying that they are exactly who they say they are. Experts recommend that you never use the link provided in an email to go to the site of someone you do business with. Instead, open a new browser window and type in the known address by hand

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There has been a huge growth in the number of cold calls, and unsolicited offers that people receive on their home and business phones. The process can be very intrusive and frustrating and is the subject of a growing number of complaints. Many of these calls come from phone companies, especially mobile phone providers but they are also for new windows, for insurance and for credit among other things.

If you are offered credit over the phone, it can be quite tempting, especially if you have poor credit or have had difficulty in getting credit in the past. However, there are some risks involved and you should be careful. The primary concern with these types of calls is that at the end of the day, if you are the recipient of the call, you do not know who is calling you. Just because someone says they are from a respectable bank or credit card provider does not necessarily mean they are, and you should accordingly be cautious about what information you give out over the phone. Of course, if you have made the call, or have requested it from a reputable lender, then this will be far less of a concern.

Do not, under any circumstances, be pressured into giving out sensitive information over the phone or accepting credit if you are not comfortable doing so. If you do think you want to accept a phone offer for credit, then give out as little information as possible over the phone. They will probably need your address, but any other information can be sent to them through the post, in an application form. You should become very suspicious of anyone who calls you and starts asking for your payment details, bank account number or any other similar information. If they are a genuine company, then they should be more than happy to send you an application form through the post.

Also, make sure you ask who you are speaking to and which company they represent. Ask them for their website address so that you can look up the company on line. Also, when the application form does arrive by post, read it carefully and satisfy yourself not only that the offer is one you would like to accept, but also that the company is one that you would like to be dealing with. Finally, look at the address carefully and make sure that it all appears above board.