MyCardBlog

Equifax, one of the famous 3 credit report agencies, was just named a technology leader in the 2008 FinTech 100 list by American Banker and Financial Insights. Consumers have been using the service from Equifax for more than 100 years. And Equifax is continuing to promote technical innovations all the time. The latest technique innovation is the introduction of I-Card which is supposed to be an online identity card.

What is the I-Card?

I-Cards (information cards) are just like your driver’s license, passport or other IDs which can be used everywhere to identify who you are. But I-Cards are a little bit special because they can only be used online. You can’t use I-Card at a grocery store to buy alcohols or cigars. In other words, the I-Cards are online equivalent of your driver’s license or passport. I-Cards allow you to show your “online ID” at some ID required websites and e-commerce sites that accept the I-card and conduct online transactions with greater security. It’s expected that the easy-of-use and security of I-Cards will boost the relationships between consumers and businesses and make the online transactions more easy and secure.

What can I-Card do?

• Login to websites with a single click
• Create relationships with those you want to do business with
• Manage your personal data more easily
• Manage the claims that you make to other people and institutions about yourself (for example, you are over 18)
• Prove that you are who you say you are without revealing unnecessary details, by using trusted identity provider

According to the equifaxicards.com, you can use your information cards at any sites show the i-card logo on their screen.

The I-card is a product of Equifax and Parity, a leader in user-centric identity management. After creating an I-Card, the consumer will also be offered Parity’s Azigo I-card management software to enable one-click sign-in and identity verification. (somewhat like the American Express’ Online Assistant)

The first product is the Over 18 I-Card. The “Over 18 I-Card”, authenticated by Equifax, demonstrates the power of I-Cards to enable immediate, secured access to restricted content without site-specific account creation or log-in. Every time there is a requirement of age verification, you should only present your I-Card to prove that you are over 18. A very good demonstration is the watch-this.com which requires you to provide I-Card to watch the video contents on that site (this is only a demonstration site).

More I-Cards products are coming soon.

There are 3 easy steps to get your I-Card:

1. Register and securely authenticated by Equifax.

2. Download and install the Azigo Card selector.

3. Whenever this is a requirement of I-Card, you I-Card is automatically stored in your card selector and ready to use.

I-Card is a new technology product that can secure online activities like online shopping and online entertainments. The I-Card is expected to reduce the online credit fraud and identity theft. Create a new I-Card for yourself today!

This must be one of the hottest topics on the web yesterday. Ocean National Bank is offering free credit monitor service for its customers. Anyone with a promotion code can use it to get free credit monitor service at Equifax, one of the three credit bureaus. Since the promotion code is open to everyone, everyone can use it to get a free 2-year credit monitor service from Equifax and Ocean National Bank will pay for you.

This promotion is listed on the Ocean National Bank’s front page (https://www.eocean.com). About the free credit monitoring service can be found at https://www.eocean.com/freemonitoring.html. Apparently, the service is offered to Ocean National Bank deposit customers only. As they indicated:

In our continuing effort to provide our customers with enhanced privacy protection, we are pleased to offer all of our personal deposit customers free Equifax Credit Watch Silver.

Equifax Credit Watch Silver offers you:

• Email alerts within 7 days of key changes to your Equifax credit file to help protect against credit card fraud (alerts triggered by the lender’s report to Equifax)
• Wireless alerts option
• “No news is good news” monthly message if there are no alerts
• One free Equifax Credit Report with a discount on additional reports
• $2,500 in identity theft insurance with $250 deductible (some limits and exclusions apply)
• Premium customer care, 8AM–3AM, 7 days a week
• Identity Theft Protection news and tips

The truth is there is a leaked promotion code with which you can enroll in the Equifax Credit Monitor service without any payment for two years. Click the link and you will get a free promotion code.  With that code, you can click here to finish the enrollment process without any payment information. So you do NOT need to be an Ocean National bank customer to enroll in the free credit monitor service provided by Equifax.

About Ocean National Bank: A a locally managed commercial bank headquartered in Portsmouth, N.H., with $2 billion in assets and 42 branches in New Hampshire and southern Maine with more than 150 years of operation history.

People without any relationship with Ocean National Bank reported successfully enrolled in the credit monitor service. Personally, I think this is a good deal to catch.

Every now and then you will receive junk mails from credit card companies, banks, investment, retirement and mortgage companies. But if you are a careful consumer, you will notice that the junk mails in your mailbox is decreasing all the time in the past few months. Good new or bad news?

In the first quarter of 2008, financial service companies sent out about 4.2 billion direct mails to US residents. Compared to 4.6 billion in the forth quarter of 2007, it’s about 10% fewer in the year 2008 although we are still talking about billions of mails. The drop of junk mails reflects the financial companies are facing a slumping economy. As a matter of fact, our consumers are trying to make ends meet, both spending and savings are down in the past a few months. The steady decline of junk mails is a result of lower response rates from customers and the presure to maximum profit which in return to reduce the cost of operations. For many of us, fewer junk mails is good because we don’t have to take the hassle to shred those junk mails. However, for many of us, we might lose the chance to get fewer bonuses or promotions from financial companies. For example, US Bank is cutting the amount of direct mails about their WorldPerks Visa Card and SkyPass Visa Card (usbank.com/myoffer). JPMorgan Chase & Co also reduced their direct mails about 34% in the first quarter (mostly about Chase business cards). Bank of America also cut their direct mails by 17% in the first quarter.

There are still some fianancial companies increased their direct mails in the past few months. American Express and Discover Card slightly increased their volume. (It’s quite possible that you are receiving more mails from American Express about SimplyCash Card, Gold Delta Skymiles Card, Blue Cash Card and Business Gold Rewards Card.) Washiton Mutual was very crazy at direct marketing advertising—increase direct mails by 56% in the first quater of this year. They were trying to expand their share in the credit card market.

Although our credit card companies, banks, investment, retirement and mortgage companies slightly cut their direct mail so far, they will still be using direct mail marketing strategy. Direct mail is still a very effective way to get your attention.

The question is how to opt out of junk mails?

Ususally every direct mail contains information on how to opt out of direct mails. You can find their contact information at the back of direct mails. To stop receiving junk mails you can write to:

• Equifax Options, Marketing Decision Systems
  • By phone: ( 888) 567-8688
  • By mail:
    Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc.
    P.O. Box 740241
    Atlanta, GA 30374

• Experian Marketing Solutions
  • By phone: (888) 246-2804
  • By mail:
    Online Privacy Team
    Experian
    475 Anton Blvd.
    Costa Mesa, CA 92626

• TransUnion
  • By phone: (888) 567-8688
  • By mail:
    TransUnion Name Removal Option
    P.O. Box 97328
    Jackson, MS 39288