I recently pulled my credit report from TransUnion and discovered that there was some erroneous information negatively impacting my report. It turns out that I was 90-days late on a utilities payment to UGI, a utility company I have never even heard of. Digging a little deeper into my report, I saw that they had an alternate social security number that one digit off and an address in Pennsylvania that I had never even heard of… let alone once lived at. A quick phone call to TransUnion (and the two other bureaus) led to an investigation and a quick resolution in my favor.

One thing I was surprised to see was that they listed “alternate social security numbers,” one of which was wrong, and when I asked the CSR about why they even accept a report with an erroneous SSN, she explained that they will accept it if it has no negative impact because sometimes they get typos. This is clearly a loophole or error that should be investigated… if someone doesn’t even have the right social in their report to the bureau then the bureau should reject it and request that the originator fix it! In my particular case, they accepted the wrong social and pegged a utility bill to my name.

Hopefully this wasn’t a case of identity theft and I’ll definitely have to keep an eye out for this but it illustrates how important it is to keep on top of your credit history. The only major effect it had, which I didn’t know at the time, was that it made it a little harder to get that 0% financing deal for the windows I purchased from Castle; I wish I had checked a month ago to find out why it was “harder” but depending on when UGI reported (some credit card companies don’t report until it’s 60 days late) the late payment, I may have completely missed it.

If you haven’t checked your report this year, you have absolutely no excuse not to go to the government’s annual credit report website and request at least one report (I like to stagger them out so I can get it three times a year) right this very second. You should never have to pay for you credit report and going through the government’s website is the best way to ensure you get your free copy.

I received in the mail two lovely letters from Citi informing me and my fiancée of our enrollment in Citibank Credit Protector. Included at the bottom of the welcome letter was the mail-in gasoline cash back certificate worth a nice fatty $100, the most I’ve heard a credit card company offer for a credit protection program enrollment (usually you hear about $15 checks or $50 in rebate certificates) so this one definitely caught my attention when I blogged about the $100 gas certificate earlier this month.

Some have reported not being able to get to it through the URL I copied (this link) or on the site while others have. I saw it specifically on my Citi Professional card screen in a huge box to the right (where they usually list promotional offers). That took me to the URL above and the credit protector sign up page. If you don’t have the Citi Professional, I’m certain it appears for other cards so just keep refreshing until the promotion pops up. I checked today and it still appeared.

The instructions are simple, here they are straight from the certificate:

We will send you a check for the price of gasoline up to $100. Simply fill out the certificate and return with your original gasoline purchase receipt(s) attached by December 31, 2006 TO: Redemption Center, Department #79095, P.O. Box 134, Niagara Falls, NY 14302.

Terms And Conditions:

Receipt(s) for purchase of gasoline and this certificate must be sent within 30 days of gasoline purchase and no later than December 31, 2006. Any illegal or wrongful use or reproduction of this certificate will be prosecuted by the fullest extent of the law. All information must be completed and subject to verification. Please allow up to 4-6 weeks for payment.

Unfortunately this deal is gone but if it’s close to your birthday, sign up for their birthday club and get a free creation on your birthday!

Fatten up for the winter (and save on heating bills!) with a Buy 1 Get 1 Coupon to Cold Stone Creamery courtesy of the Consumerist. Buy 1 Get 1 coupon’s to your local gym are not included. Expires in January 31st, 2007.

You know those $15 checks you get in the mail for Credit Protector? As I logged into a Citi account tonight, I was greeted with a juicy offer - a $100 Gas Cash-Back Certificate just for trying out the Credit Protector program, which is free for the first 30 days. The certificate will be mailed with the Credit Protector program membership information.

The link I was given was this link but I don’t know if that will work for everyone. If that link doesn’t give you the offer, try the Credit Protector homepage where you should see a banner for the $100 gas cash back certificate offer.

Offer expires 12/31/06 and cardholders are limited to just one certificate. This will dovetail nicely with the number of Citi cards offering $100 gift cards (like the Citi Professional).

This offer is just a little better than a $15 check huh?

FYI, the customer service number is 1-800-380-8556.

Wow I meant to post this three days ago but … Congratulations to Curtis, winner of the 500,000 visits contest. Curtis will be taking home the following five books that I’ve listed below and enjoying them over the upcoming Thanksgiving break. I waited until now to post who won just because I wanted to contact the winner and get their address before I said anything. Thank you every for entering, it was my most successful (in terms of entries) contest to date!

Career Intensity: Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs by David V. Lorenzo	Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week! by Phil Town	The Money Coach’s Guide to Your First Million by Lynnette Khalfani	The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon’s Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness by Steven K. Scott	The Big Money: Seven Steps to Picking Great Stocks and Finding Financial Security by Frederick R. Kobrick

That’s right, you can win five free books in celebration of this site breaking 500,000 unique visitors. All you need to do is go to the 500,000 contest post, leave a comment with a Laffy Taffy type joke, and wait until Friday night (really Saturday morning) when I draw a name from the list and send off five personal finance books to one lucky winner. (If you have a blog, you can score another entry if you link to this site)

So, you have a few more hours to find yourself a Laffy Taffy joke and enter the contest!

Photoworks, the latest to join the online photo printing foray, has a couple coupons for those of you who are looking to get some prints for the holiday season. If you don’t have an account yet, signing up will give you 25 free prints to test our their service, otherwise, here are some coupon codes to help you out.

• FREE 30 Prints w/Coupon: C622-38-5144-71
• FREE 25 Prints w/ Coupon Code: C621-38-5104-91
• 1 Free pack (25 cards) of photo cards with any card purchase Coupon: C7772-38-5112-51
• Free Shipping Coupon Code: C609-38-5164-21
• Link for 25 free photo cards for new accounts
• 50% off Photo Mugs: C888-38-5153-11

(FYI, these codes don’t stack, so use the best one for each order.)

This contest is now closed. Thanks everyone!

Yep, Sitemeter can confirm that nearly half a million unique fools people have visited my humble blog (it’ll roll over sometime tomorrow)… if you asked me a year and a half ago whether I ever thought my blog would get so many visitors, let alone a hundred thousand, I would’ve told you that you were crazy. Why would anyone read this blog!? (Don’t worry, I’m not as self-defeating as my pal Cap at StopBuyingCrap) So, to celebrate this momentous occasion, I’ll be giving away five books that I have sitting on my shelf to one lucky reader. One person will win all five books. I don’t know which five they’ll be (they’ll be personal finance-ish books, books that PR firms have sent me to review) but one person will win them.

So, how can you win these five books? I will draw an entry at random on Midnight on November 3rd (it’ll actually be sometime in the morning of November 4th) and there are two ways to earn an entry (you can earn up to two entries):

1. Blog about how I am awesome and am approaching half a million (or have breached) uniques and that I’m giving away five books. (You can skip the awesome part but talk about the five free books… and please link to this post, if you don’t then I have no real way of tracking it and I can’t give you credit for it)
2. Leave a comment (with your email) below with a unique Laffy Taffy-type joke (please leave your email or I won’t know how to contact you!).

What’s a Laffy Taffy type joke? It’s a pun, a groaner, a joke you would only ever tell someone because you couldn’t believe how bad it was.

Image courtesy of isogloss.

Unfortunately this offer has expired. Sorry everyone!

I was putzing around in my credit card accounts (checking to see if I could start using the Citi mtvU card for regular purchases since the 0% balance transfer just ended) when I saw a link to the Citi Credit-ED Challenge. Not ever being one to back off from a challenge, I looked to see what it was all about and when I went to take the challenge I saw a field for a promotional code, so off to Google I went! What did I find? CITCHE1 will get you a $5 Amazon Gift Certificate if you become Credit-ED certified (score 70% or higher) on the 20 question test.

I didn’t watch any of the educational videos and scored a 95%, so go get yourself a $5 gift certificate!

I’ve mentioned TradePub a while back and how I get a whole bunch of trade publications from them (mostly programming, a few business magazines) and I wanted to mention them again. Basically you can go to their site (which is branded with my site’s look and feel), search around for various trade publications in the fields of everything from Engineering to Executive Management to Agriculture (I get a beverage business publication that’s pretty cool) and if you qualify then you get the magazine subscription for free. I think it’s a really easy way to learn about other businesses.