More and more of our personal information is ending up online these days. Social media has been a big privacy battle ground with several law suits aimed at Facebook in recent years.
Other services like Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest are disseminating our personal information to millions of people around the world.
Related: Why Electronic Banking Is Safe
But it’s not just social media; we give up our personal information to lots of other websites when we register for online services like newsletters, discussion groups, loyalty programs, file sharing sites and more.
Who Can Access Your Personal Information?
The distribution of personal information is a reality in today’s world, it’s hard to escape and will probably get worse as the years go on. This means that identity theft will be one of the major online security trends for many years to come.
We give out all kinds of information including our dates of birth, place of work, email addresses, likes, dislikes, names of friends, schools we attended and more. By giving out all of these things, we open ourselves up to identity theft.
Related: Online Fraud Campaign Helps Protect Investors
To illustrate, let’s take a look at Personal Verification Questions (PVQs). These questions are used as a second factor for authentication to internet services including online banking or as a way to reset your password on many other websites.
These are the questions available for selection from my bank:
Choose a question:
- Your best sport
- First concert you attended
- Your first job
- Your hobby
- Your favorite teacher
- First car you owned
- First vacation outside your country
- Name of your first pet
- Create your own question
Most of these questions could be answered by a bad guy with access to someone’s Facebook page. Chances are there will be pictures of you playing a sport, driving your car or walking your dog.
Armed with this information a criminal could reset your password and take over your email account or other web account.
Related: How To Spot Investment Fraud
Another poor classic question is, “What Is Your Mother’s Maiden Name?”. We may not realize it but there are many women who don’t change their last name for cultural or personal reasons. While the answer to this question might have been “secure” 30 years ago, it certainly isn’t now.
How To Protect Yourself From Identity Theft And Cyber Fraud
So if PVQs and the proliferation of information are so bad, what can we do to protect ourselves?
1) Share less – Instead of putting your entire life out on the internet, hold the more vital details back.
2) Don’t share information that’s related to security questions – If you use PVQs, don’t indirectly share the answers to them!
3) Don’t re-use the same passwords – If you use the same password for every site and one of them gets broken in to, all your accounts are now up for grabs.
4) Make sure your email account is locked down – You may not realize it but your email account is a treasure trove of information for bad guys. Gaining access to your email is the next best thing to having direct access to your bank account. Make sure you utilize all available security features to protect your email.
5) Delete old profiles – If you stop using a social media site or other online service, make sure you delete your account. There’s no telling what could happen in the future so it’s best to have as small a footprint on the Internet as possible.
6) Lock down your social media profiles – Only connect with people you actually know, don’t make your profile public and utilize all the security features you can that are offered from social media sites.
7) Learn to love shredding – Getting into the habit of shredding personal information goes a long way to help you prevent identity theft from local thieves. Shred anything with your name and address on it and any kind of statements. These documents are a gold mine of information for the bad guys.
8) Keep an eye on your credit report – Taking a look at your credit report every once in a while may help you to identify suspicious activity. There are paid credit monitoring services which make this process easier.
9) Title insurance – While identity theft as it relates to real estate is very uncommon, it can be extremely difficult and costly to recover from. Imagine someone taking out a second mortgage out on your home for $400,000!
If you suspect you’ve been a victim of identity theft, report it and take action immediately.
- Canada: Canadian Anti Fraud Centre
- United Kingdom: Action Fraud
- United States: Federal Trade Commission
Remember, identity theft isn’t just about financial loss; someone could impersonate you to do all kinds of nasty things. The more we get in the habit of protecting ourselves, the better off we will be as our world gets more and more connected.
Andrew Martin is a personal finance and investing blogger from Toronto, Ontario with a background in technology and a passion for travel. His blog, She Thinks I’m Cheap aims to help Canadians make more money by sharing facts, stories and advice.
With the plethora of tax preparation software available, many people file their own tax return each year.
But even with the software questions and guidance, many deductions are commonly overlooked, so much so that H&R Block offers a free “Second Look” for any new clients’ past year’s tax return to check for anything missed.
Related: Smart Tax Planning Strategies
Filing Your Own Tax Return
Here are 25 tips for filing your own tax return this year:
- Get your benefits – People turning 19 before April 1, 2014 should be filing a 2012 tax return even if they’ve had no income. This will allow them to collect the GST/HST credit for the quarter following their 19th birthday.
- Claim your income – Any child under 18 years of age who works part-time, or during the summer, may be entitled to a refund of taxes paid if their income is below the basic personal amount, as well as any CPP deductions made. Even if no tax was deducted, reporting the income will increase the child’s RRSP contribution limit for future years.
Related: RRSP Over Contribution Limit and Carry Forward Rules
- Medical expenses – Health care premiums paid through payroll deductions, health care travel insurance, deductibles, and any out of pocket expenses are deductible.
- Disability tax credit – Even if you don’t think you would qualify, it may be worth asking your doctor to review the criteria on the T2201 Medical Disability form. This form is submitted to the CRA and they determine whether you qualify or not.
- Determining your dependents – If your parents/grandparents live with you, are over 65 and have a relatively low income you may be able to claim them. However, pets – even those with people names – are not dependents.
Tax tips for families with children
- Child Tax Credit – Claim for each child under 18. If one parent can’t use the entire amount to lower their tax payable, the unused amount can be transferred to a spouse or common-law partner.
- Children’s Fitness Amount –A non-refundable credit for children under 16 who are enrolled in eligible programs of physical activity. Not every program meets eligibility guidelines though, so check. Make sure you keep your receipts. Some provinces have their own credits too.
- Children’s Art Credit – This is a non-refundable credit for children under 16 enrolled in an eligible program. Programs can include art classes, ballet lessons, language classes, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. Again, keep your receipts.
- Universal Child Care Benefit: This is available to any family with children under the age of 6 regardless of household income. It is taxable in the hands of the lower-income spouse.
- Public Transit – This non-refundable tax credit also included transit passes purchased for dependent children under 19. The passes have to be for a period of at least one month (or four consecutive weeks).
Related: Tax Considerations For Single Income Families
Tax Deductions for Investors
Investors can earn three types of income – business, property (interest, dividends, rents) and capital gains.
To claim a deduction, your expenditures must be incurred to earn income from the business or property, not be a capital expenditure, not be used to earn tax-exempt income, not be a personal or living expense, and be reasonable.
Related: How To Calculate Capital Gains And Adjusted Cost Base
You should be able to deduct the following:
- Management fees
- Safety deposit box rental
- Accounting fees
- Fees for investment advice
- Interest on money borrowed to earn investment income (not tax-exempt)
- Capital cost allowance on computer equipment, software and office equipment
What to do with your tax refund
If you’re expecting an income tax refund this year, put it to good use.
Related: Why Tax Refunds Are Bad
- One of the best uses for a tax refund is to pay down debt, especially high-interest debt.
- Pay off RRSP loans. Many RRSP loans include a three or four month grace period, during which time you don’t have to make any payments, although the interest continues to accrue.
- Contribute to your RRSP and/or TFSA. The sooner your money gets into one of these plans, the longer it has to grow, tax-deferred or exempt.
- Make up for missed contributions. If you haven’t made your maximum RRSP or TFSA contribution every year, you’ll have unused contribution room.
- Make a lump-sum payment against your mortgage. A lump-sum payment is applied directly to the principal of the loan. Be mortgage-free sooner by saving thousands of dollars in interest costs over the life of the mortgage.
- Fund a child’s education. Contribute to a tax-deferred RESP for the post-secondary education of your children or grandchildren.
Where’s my refund? Get the details on the status of your tax return at the CRA website. Go to www.cra.gc.ca and click on the “My Account” link.
For more tax tips go to www.hrblock.ca/resources/tax_tips.asp
When TD bought MBNA’s credit card portfolio I knew it spelled trouble for my favourite cash back credit card, the Smart Cash card. Sure enough, about a year later, MBNA announced some pretty drastic changes to limit the amount of cash back you could earn with Smart Cash.
Related: MBNA Smart Cash MasterCard Review
So I’ve spent some time the past few months figuring out which rewards credit cards will give me the best bang for my buck. I’ve compared all the different cards and decided to use the following combination:
- Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite for groceries, gas and drug store spending as well as for recurring bill payments.
- ChoicePlus card from American Express for Costco purchases and for earning double points at my five chosen retailers.
- Capital One Aspire Cash World MasterCard for all other spending.
Had I kept using the Smart Cash card I would have earned $350 cash back this year. With my new rewards credit card approach, I should earn more than $800 in cash back this year.
I called up MBNA to let them know I wanted to close my account. Despite the extraordinary lengths the agent took to try and convince me to stay, I cancelled my MBNA Smart Cash card.
Here’s how the call went down:
Call To Cancel My MBNA Smart Cash Card
MBNA: Hi, this is Jason. How may I help you?
Me: Hi Jason, I’d like to close my account please.
Jason: I’m sorry to hear that. May I ask why?
Me: Well, after the changes you’ve made to the Smart Cash card I’m no longer getting the most cash back with this card.
Jason: I understand. Okay, I’ll have to transfer you to another agent to close your account.
Me: (waits five minutes on hold)
Related: Top Cash Back Credit Cards In Canada
MBNA: Hi, this is Jeff. I understand you want to close your account because you’re no longer getting the most cash back. You realize that you have the Smart Cash World card and so there’s no limit to how much cash back you can earn, right?
Me: Hi Jeff, yes I do realize this but with my spending habits I can get more cash back using the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite card for groceries, gas and drug store purchases along with recurring bill payments.
Jeff: True, but the Scotia card is only for really high income earners.
Me: Well, you’ll need $60,000 income to qualify for the Visa Infinite card but that’s not an issue for me.
Jeff: But you’ll only get 1% cash back on the other spending categories. Why don’t you keep the Smart Cash card as your secondary card and use it for other purchases?
Me: Because I can get 1.5% cash back using the Capital One Aspire Cash World MasterCard on any spending category.
Jeff: You’ll only get 1% cash back with Cap One Aspire Cash.
Me: No, you get 1% cash back on your purchases, PLUS a 50% cash back bonus at the end of the year. So effectively you’re earning 1.5%, which beats the 1% that Smart Cash pays. I also get a $100 bonus for my first purchase.
Jeff: With the introduction of our new e-mall you’ll get more cash back when you shop online with our preferred partners. That’ll beat what you get back with Cap One Aspire Cash.
Me: I’m aware of the e-mall but I prefer to focus on my core spending. I don’t shop with a lot of your e-mall partners so the cash back you offer there doesn’t really matter. Besides, I’m using the ChoicePlus card from American Express where I earn double points at five retailers of my choice.
Related: Save Money Shopping Online With Great Canadian Rebates
Jeff: But with the e-mall you can earn 6-10% cash back on hotels and rental cars. That’s a lot more than you’ll get back with the other cards.
Me: We have two kids under the age of four. We don’t travel.
Jeff: So why not just keep your account open and then use the Smart Cash card on the odd occasion when you do travel?
Me: I think I’ll manage to find a good deal when the time comes. I’d just like to close my account please.
Jeff: MBNA has some of the lowest interest rates of all the rewards credit cards on the market.
Me: I don’t care about interest rates because I always pay off my credit card balance in full each month.
Jeff: I’m not sure if you’re aware, but we have a promotion where you can get 0% interest for up to 20 months. If you leave your account open I can convert your card to our MBNA Platinum Plus card so you can take advantage of this promotional rate.
Me: I don’t need a balance transfer credit card. I’m not interested in credit card arbitrage.
Related: Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards In Canada
Jeff: Okay, but have you considered using it to take out an interest free loan to make an RRSP contribution? You won’t get a 20-month interest free RRSP loan from your bank for up to $20,000.
Me: (Pauses: that’s actually not a bad idea). No, no. I’m not interested.
Jeff: Why? Is your RRSP maxed out or something?
Me: (Damn, this guy is persistent). I’m not interested.
Jeff: If you leave your account open you’ll avoid a hit on your credit report. This could impact future credit applications.
Me: I’ve already been approved for the other credit cards so I won’t be opening any new accounts for a while. I just want to close my account please.
Related: What Does Your Credit Score Really Mean?
Jeff: (Defeated). Is there anything else we can do to convince you to stay?
Me: You could re-instate your previous cash back rewards system.
Jeff: Unfortunately the old 5%/3%/1% cash back model was not sustainable so we had to make the changes.
Me: Well, I guess that means I’ll have to make changes too.
Final thoughts
I didn’t expect MBNA to let me walk away without a fight. As soon as Jason said he was going to transfer me I knew I’d be speaking with a loyalty and retention agent who would do his best to keep my business.
Unfortunately for MBNA, I had done my homework and so I had an answer for all of Jeff’s rebuttals.
I’ve learned that, as customers, we can get what we want if we’re willing to do the research to compare what other companies are offering and then be willing to walk away if we’re not satisfied.
Related: 10 Fees You Can Avoid Paying
I’ll take what I’ve learned from this experience and apply it when I want to negotiate my cable or internet bill, or when the time comes to renew my car and house insurance.
What’s your experience been like when cancelling a product or a service? Did the company try and convince you to stay?