ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100009
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: MARKETPLACE
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
A couple of recent direct-mail offers have some Roanoke-area residents wondering, "Why pay someone else when you can do it yourself?"
If you're recently married or divorced, you may have gotten a mailing from a company called Federal Record Service Corp. with an offer to change the name on your Social Security card. For just $15, the letter promises, the company will handle the clerical details. All you have to do is complete a data card and send in a few documents.
Which is exactly what you'd have to do if you went directly to the Social Security Administration. And you wouldn't have to pay for it. Not a dime.
Companies such as this one feed off the popular perception that government is inaccessible, or that you have to be some sort of important person to get a response. Sure, we ordinary folks can try calling the SSA, but we'll just end up on hold, or transferred, or disconnected.
But how's this for irony: You may have to call the SSA a half dozen times before you finally get through without a busy signal, but you will, eventually, get to talk to a live person. The Federal Record Service, on the other hand, doesn't even list a telephone number on its mailing. The Better Business Bureau's report on the company includes a phone number - not a toll-free one, incidentally - that you can call with complaints or questions. And what answers is a recording telling you to write if you need help. You can't even leave a voice-mail message.
According to the BBB report, some dissatisfied customers said they thought they would receive a Social Security card when they paid the fee, but instead they were sent a completed form that then had to be sent on to the SSA. Others said they paid the firm's fee but didn't receive the completed form.
The firm has responded to complaints by issuing refunds, the BBB report says, although most complaints received since January remain unanswered.
|n n| If you have credit cards, you may have gotten an offer to join a credit monitoring service from a company called SafeCard Services Inc. of Cheyenne, Wyo. If you join - for $39 a year, charged automatically to your credit card - you'll get:
* Notification when any "derogatory or negative" information is added to your credit report;
* An annual copy of your credit report - translated into "easy-to-read English;"
* A toll-free phone number you can call for help in correcting or contesting negative credit reports.
"We put it into a user-friendly format," said Diane Sayers, the company's membership manager. "If you're not real familiar with credit lingo ... we make it easier to understand."
SafeCard has been in business since 1990, Sayers said, and has extended offers with various terms to thousands of clients through more than a dozen credit cards. SafeCard doesn't, however, promise to repair your bad credit. The service will only alert you to potential problems and then tell you where to call with questions.
If you're an active credit user - if you charge purchases or make payments - you should check your credit rating once a year, said Paul Richard, vice president of the nonprofit National Center for Financial Education, based in San Diego.
True, a service such as SafeCard may save you a little time and energy, he said, but you don't have to pay a middle man to keep up with your credit rating.
For half the price of the annual membership, you can get a copy of your credit reports directly from each of the four major credit reporting agencies. In fact, one of the agencies will send you a free report once a year. The reports aren't that tough to decipher, either, he said. Each agency uses different codes, but they're explained in a key on the flip side of the report. Make sure you check with all the reporting agencies; because they're for-profit businesses, they each have different clients and so may hold different information about your credit.
If you still have questions, or for more serious credit problems, you can talk to a counselor at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Roanoke Valley just by calling 563-0076.
You can get a free copy of NCFE's "The truth about credit repair" brochure, plus information on how to request copies of your credit reports, by sending a self-addressed, stamped (two stamps, please) business-size envelope to: NCFE, P.O. Box 34070, San Diego, Calif. 92163. Or for $10 plus $2 postage and handling, you can order NCFE's "Do-it-yourself credit repair and improvement guide," which includes sample letters and a guide to reading credit reports.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Do it yourself. color. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB