TrueEarnings Business Card from Costco and American Express

-5% for buying gas
-3% for eating out
-2% for traveling
-1% for everywhere else, including Costco
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TrueEarnings® Business Card from Costco and American Express

• 5% for buying gas.
  
• 3% for dining out.
  
• 2% for travel purchases from airline, lodging, car rental, cruise line, travel agency and tour operator merchants.
  
• 1% on all other Eligible Purchases.
  
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DID YOU KNOW?

	Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external organization to perform some or all business functions in a country other than the one where the product or service will be sold or consumed. It can be contrasted with offshoring, in which the functions are performed in a foreign country, whether by the foreign subsidiary of the same company or a third-party. Opponents point out that this sends work overseas, thereby reducing domestic employment and domestic investment. Many jobs in the infotech sectors - such as data entry, and customer support - have been or are potentially affected. The general criteria for a job to be offshore-able are: • The job does not require direct customer interaction; • The job can be telework; • The work has a high information content; • The work can be transmitted over the internet; • The work is easy to set up; • There is a high wage difference between the original and offshore countries; • The work is repeatable. The driving factor behind this development has been the need to cut costs during the recession that began before the events of September 11, 2001 and deepened since then, while the enabling factor has been the global electronic network that allows digital data to be accessed and shipped instantly, from and to anywhere in the world. Some of the major countries that provide such services are India (Programming and IT), Russia (Programming and R&D), Ukraine (Programming and Design), Romania (Programming and IT), the Philippines (Data Entry and Customer Support), China (Programming), and many others. The Trusted Pipe architecture is a preferred approach to offshore outsourcing. It relates to the field of management of a business and economical enterprise operation that is directed toward creating a communications system of infrastructure and communications networks that will enable management and engineering personnel (“intelligent middlemen”) located in offshore areas to facilitate the exchange of economic type assets and information among themselves. Such economic assets should include: cultural, technical and legal rights and remedies, software engineering and various other business skills, from buyer to seller.] Primarily, the Trusted Pipe will manage a network of global enterprises seeking to outsource software development and operations offshore. There are two major types of control points, at least one GECP that operates in the U.S. and manages the network of global enterprises seeking to outsource software development and operations offshore and at least one OVCP that operates in the target country and manages the network of outsource vendors. The advent of the Internet has enabled individuals and small businesses to contract freelancers from all over the world to get projects done at a minimum cost. This trend runs in parallel with the tendency towards big corporations' outsourcing, and may in the future serve to strengthen small business' capacity to compete with their bigger competitors capable of setting up offshore locations or of arriving at major contracts with offshore companies. See Freelancing on the Internet. There are different views on the impact on society, which reflects the attitude of Protectionism versus Free Trade. Some see it as a potential threat to the domestic job market and ask for government protective measures, while others (and not just corporations) see it as an opportunity.

In this day and age, a major concern of most people is avoiding identity theft… the stealing of your personal and financial information by someone who wants to use it to either steal the money that you have in bank accounts, max out your credit cards, or establish new lines of credit in your name and then use them with no intention of repaying the balances. This can cause major problems, because in addition to stealing your money the thieves can ruin your credit rating… and that can cost you loans, credit lines, and even some jobs.

There are steps that you can take to help avoid identity theft and the theft of your financial information, however; for the most part it's simply a matter of being careful with your information and using a little bit of common sense.

Watch Your Mail

One of the easiest ways for thieves to get their hands on your financial information is to go through the things that you get in the mail and throw away. Bank statements, duplicate receipts from online purchases, and stock reports can all come in the mail and may contain information that you don't want thieves to get their hands on.

Even credit card solicitations can cause trouble if you simply throw them away. Instead of trashing these items, invest in a shredder and make it harder for them to be used for ill means.

Be Careful with Records

Just like your mail, old financial records can contain identifying information that you don't want thieves to have access to. Use your shredder to destroy the records once they've outlived their relevancy instead of simply throwing them away… even if they're not up to date, resourceful thieves can use them to mimic your financial history in order to establish new lines of credit in your name.

Take Caution with Suspicious E-mail

Phishing, or the sending of fake e-mails that seem to be from legitimate financial sources, is a modern way that thieves can get their hands on sensitive financial information. If an e-mail looks suspicious, don't click on any links contained within; instead, type in the URL of the site the letter claims to be from manually and report the e-mail to the site's fraud investigation department to confirm whether or not it's a spoof.

Check Your Statements

It's important to check the accuracy of your financial statements when they arrive… this is an easy yet effective way to tell whether someone has been tampering with your accounts and may save you both time and money if you catch them early. Look for charges or cheques that you don't remember authorizing, or any other activity that you can't recall initiating.

Using online account access is another way to stay on top of potential account tampering; check your account periodically in between statements to keep an eye out for unauthorized activity.

Keep an Eye on Your Credit

Periodically obtaining a copy of your credit report or subscribing to a credit monitoring service can help you avoid others establishing fake lines of credit in your name. If you check your credit report and notice any reports that don't seem like they belong, contact the credit issuer directly to inquire about them.

You may be able to catch an identity thief in the act, stopping them before they do damage to your credit and keeping them from taking advantage of others down the line.

Credit monitoring services can do this for you, alerting you each time a new report is established so that you know whether it's legitimate or not.

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