| YOUR MONEY: Charities sometime prey on the elderly, too
My mother-in-law is in her 80s, a "Rockefeller Republican" who is still politically and civically active whenever her health allows it. Recently, however, she spent eight days in the hospital.While she was away, the phone rang almost every night with calls from telemarketers hoping she’d help out some political or charitable cause. While my in-laws are on the national do-not-call registry, political and charitable groups are exempted; a long history of being active donors has made them targets for every group that has a copy of the mooch list.My mother-in-law still picks her causes carefully; she’s socially liberal but fiscally conservative — the definition of a Rockefeller Republican — and wants to continue making a difference.So imagine the surprise when her mail included a letter from Fidelis — a national organization that is the antithesis of her politics — saying that her December donation had failed to go through because the credit-card information was incorrect.The note sparked my curiosity because so many things about it seemed out of place.
Experian offers credit freeze facility from November 1
Consumer credit reporting bureau Experian has announced that it will be offering its customers in 50 states and the District of Columbia, the chance to freeze their credit histories starting November 1. Experian is the second firm after TransUnion to offer consumers the option of freezing their credit histories. By freezing histories, consumers can block access to their reports by new creditors. The company said that it would be charging $10 every time a consumer wants to freeze his/her history temporarily or permanently. "It will be one option among a broad range of fraud-assistance tools we already provide to consumers so that they may make the choice best suited to their situation," said Kerry Williams, group president of credit services and decision analytics business at Experian. "Now that a national model for file freezing has emerged, Experian is offering this option to help prevent consumer confusion." TransUnion was the first company to offer this option, which will come into effect starting October 15.
NetSuite Closes IPO at $26 per Share
On-demand enterprise resource planning vendor NetSuite said Dec. 26 that it has closed its initial public offering. The much-vaunted IPO, launched Dec. 10, has raised $185.4 million in the sale of 6.2 million shares at $26 eacha take that far exceeds the companys initial expectations. NetSuite officials said in a Dec. 6 statement that they expected shares to price out at between $13 and $16 each during the IPO to raise a total of about $80.9 million. The company is majority-owned by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and his family, which owned about 74 percent of NetSuite prior to the IPO, a percentage that is expected to drop down to about 66 percent post-IPO. NetSuite officials said the company will use the proceeds from the offering to repay the $8 million balance on a secured line of credit with the companys controlling shareholder, Tako Ventures, a company controlled by Ellison.
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