The other night while watching TV with my daughter she started to sing along with the FreeCreditReport.com song. Pretty catchy, I thought. Smart marketing, too. Unlike many ads which are creative but leave you with no way to remember which company or product they are promoting (just watch TV for 30 minutes and count how many ads actually connect directly with the product), this one uses the name right in the song. So youll always remember the website while you are singing. Kind of like the Aflac duck quacking the name of the company.
Okay, so the marketing is well donethe song is easy to rememberand so is the website.
But what about the product?
Is their free credit report really free?
Sadly, free doesnt always mean free these days. Sometimes it does mean free.
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The audit report is the last step in the audit process. Usually your CPA, enrolled agent or your tax attorney will have an idea where the audit is going; some IRS auditors like to give a play by play findings while others deliver the findings in an exit conference. Even without a briefing with the auditor, your CPA or tax attorney can fashion an idea about the findings from the document request presented by the auditor.
The IRS audit negotiated settlement may be a process of give and take. You may concede an item that the IRS feels strongly about and insist on another that you feel strongly about. Ultimately both the auditor representing the IRS and your CPA must face the music.
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The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) recently rounded off positive news released from each of the UK’s four leading banks by reporting a return to profit in the first half of this year.
HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays Bank also reported a return to profitability in the first half of 2010.
RBS, which found itself at the centre of the economic crisis two years ago, has revealed it made a pre-tax profit of £1.14 billion between January and the end of June.
The results compare with a profit of £15 million pounds in the first half of 2009 and may suggest better times are ahead for the Edinburgh-based bank, which two years ago made history when it recorded an annual loss of £24.1 billion – the largest ever in British corporate history. Read more…
Have you requested your CLUE report lately? It’s one of several specialty reports you should be reviewing annually and today I requested mine.
CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange and your CLUE report details your seven year claims history with your insurance company. You have two CLUE reports, both of which come from ChoicePoint:
- CLUE Personal Property Report: This report covers personal property loss history and inquiry history. This will include all insurance claims you’ve made in the last seven years that aren’t auto-related.
- CLUE Auto Report: This report covers auto loss history and inquiry history.
You can order both for free from ChoiceTrust here. The F
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