10 states with astronomical cell phone taxes

Nebraska tops the list, with total taxes of 23.69%. Oregon has the lowest rate, 1.81%.

Just how much do we love our cell phones? So much so that, in most places across the United State, we're willing to put up with astronomical taxes to stay connected.

An analysis of cell phone taxes by the Tax Foundation finds that the levies on the devices are significantly higher than many other common consumer items.

And while we tend to complain about the IRS, in this case the tax damage is more local.

The average U.S. wireless customer pays taxes and fees of 16.26%, says the Tax Foundation, with state-local charges accounting for 11.21% of that overall amount.

Worse, the Washington, D.C.-based tax research group found that state and local governments often hide or obscure the fees. In fact, my home state of Texas even sued Sprint because the company listed a state tax as a line-item in its bill, rather than hiding it from customers.

So where does your state rank on the cell phone tax list?

Nebraska is the biggest cell phone taxer. Its combined federal-state-local average tax rate is 23.69%. Four other states -- Florida, Illinois, New York and Washington -- have total cell phone tax rates of more than 20%.

Here are the top 10 highest cell phone taxing states, with their combined average federal, state and local cell phone tax rates:

•Nebraska, 23.69%

•Washington, 23%

•New York, 22.83%

•Florida, 21.62%

•Illinois, 20.90%

•Rhode Island, 19.67%

•Missouri, 19.28%

•Pennsylvania, 19.13%

•Kansas, 18.39%

•Texas, 17.48%

Overall, 23 states and the nation's capital have average state-local wireless taxes and fees in excess of 10%.

Locally, Baltimore, Md., imposes a $4 per line per month tax on wireless users. The Charm City assessment is on top of federal and state charges. The Washington, D.C., suburb of Montgomery County, Md., charges cell phone users a monthly $3.50 per line tax.

And where is making a mobile call not so costly? Head west, cell phone users.

Oregon's state and local tax rate is just 1.81%. Nevada's rate is 2.02%. In Idaho, cell phone users pay 2.20% in state and local taxes.

From those three low-tax states, the cell phone state and local rates jump to 6.03% (that's in Montana) and just keep climbing.

February News and Views Published Below

CU SECURITY & TECHNOLOGY News - Providing a brief summary of news and information related to security and technology issues for credit unions - Plus some interesting and fun web sites . . .

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Credit Union Vendor Information No Longer Public

From Gigi Hyland, NCUA . . .

Several months ago, I was made aware of a concern regarding identifying the software solution credit unions use in the “Credit Union Online Profile” section of the NCUA website. The concern included worry that hackers or former employees of the software vendors could use their knowledge of the particular system weaknesses to compromise the credit union’s system. The agency looked at the issue extensively and decided to make an important change to publicly available credit union information.

Beginning with the June 30, 2010 Call Report cycle, we removed vendor names from the public view in Credit Union Online and the 5300 Call Report Quarterly Data Files. Similarly, effective in the near future, this vendor information will no longer be available to query from the NCUA website.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for vendor data will be denied. The information security threat landscape has changed significantly in recent years. Further, new threats continue to emerge at an alarming rate. Hacking techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated and their damage more devastating. The financial services industry has been a target in this escalating threat environment.

Restricting vendor information will reduce the exposure of credit unions’ operational and member information to external security risks. NCUA will continue to collect vendor names through Credit Union Online, as they provide useful information in case of a disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina; when a vendor failure appears likely; and as a measure of potential systemic risk, present when one or a few vendors dominate the market for credit union data processing systems.

Credit unions wishing to perform due diligence over current or prospective vendors may be able to obtain existing customer contact information from the vendors themselves.

10 Great Error Messages

A good computing day is an error-free day. Unfortunately, those are rarer than we would like. Have you seen any of these funny and original error messages lately?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/219998/10_great_error_messages.html

Leadership 101

Posted by Charles Bruen
http://www.cbruen.com/blog/

The February 9th Credit Union Times editor's column written by Sarah Snell Cooke is worth reading. Cooke covers several topics but this one in particular caught my attention:

"... during a webinar recently hosted by our Credit Union Leadership Forum, 77% of attendees responded that the NCUA's requlation definitely will help or will help some to the question, "Do you think that the latest NCUA regulations on FCU directors will help credit unions to function more effectively in the future.?"

"Beam me up Scotty!" Are you serious? These credit unions (77%) were just waiting around for the NCUA to mandate what they should do next. Is this great credit union leadership.

If this training requirement was so important to this group of credit unions, then why didn't they just implement it long ago. It is a sad state of affairs when credit leadership amounts to sitting back and waiting for the regulator tell us what the next step is to become "more effective in the future."

PayPal and Attorney Team Up to Rip off Baseball Historic Society

PayPal Refuses to Help Identify Card Clearing Bank, Partners With Bank to Cheat Historic Society

St. Louis, MO, February 15, 2011 - The 27 year old St. Louis Browns Historic Society says they’ve been ripped off by a Skokie, Illinois attorney using his credit card through PayPal. The attorney, Irving Funk, purchased a St. Louis Browns replica baseball jersey from the Society. He paid for the merchandise and turned around and canceled the transaction with his bank about a month later. Now three months later, the Society is still trying to have its merchandised returned.

Society President, Bill Rogers, says the baseball jersey was exactly as pictured at their blog site at http://brownsmerchandise.blogspot.com/ . “The cost of the sale does not warrant filing a lawsuit, but it does warrant spreading the word about the ethics of Mr. Funk. We have sent numerous e-mails, made numerous phone calls, and also sent post office mail but all go unanswered. All we’re asking for is either payment of the Jersey ($72) or return of the merchandise. It’s that simple. We have no idea why Mr. Funk changed his mind.”

Mr. Funk advised his bank to stop payment of the purchase. His bank notified PayPal who refunded the money back to Mr. Funk. A call for help to PayPal has fallen on deaf ears. Rogers said, “I have talked to PayPal several times requesting they advise us as to Mr. Funk’s bank name and/or the credit card number used for this fraudulent transaction. PayPal refuses to co-operate citing privacy reasons. PayPal has become a party to this fraud.”

A Google search on “PayPal Problems” turned up over 97,000 websites. Rogers said he noted comments at http://headkeys.com/screw-paypal.com  that provides help to those who got ripped off by PayPal.

One person commented, “Had an email off PayPal this morning. The buyer has filed an 'item not as described’ dispute, even though it was exactly as described and the lovely people at PayPal have now seized the money involved and frozen my account! I am going to have to go through all this dispute bovine excrement now, not knowing whether I will even get MY money back from them at the end of it all. Not sure what’s going on. Have I been the victim of a scam? Do you think?”

Rogers said, "If you have a PayPal account, be aware they are not a bank and have a completely different set of rules. While we may continue with PayPal, we're withdrawing our funds to work off a near-zero balance account."

About St. Louis Browns Historical Society

The mission of the St. Louis Browns Historical Society is to preserve the history and memory of the St. Louis Browns baseball team. The Browns played in St. Louis from 1902 through the 1953 season. The fan club was organized in 1984 and has more than 315 members today.

To learn more about the Browns, visit their Internet sites at:

http://www.thestlbrowns.com/
http://thestlbrowns.blogspot.com
http://brownsmuseum.blogspot.com/
http://brownsmerchandise.blogspot.com/
http://stlbrowns.qbstores.com/

Contact

Bill Rogers, President/COO
St. Louis Browns Fan Club
P.O. Box 510047
St. Louis, MO 63151-0047
Telephone: 314-892-8632
E – mail: STLBrowns@SWbell.net

It's Just Getting Too Complicated

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do toot a lot."

P.S. I know some of you are not over 50. I posted this to allow you to forward it to those who are. Us senior citizens don't need anymore gadgets. The tv remote and the garage door remote are about all we can handle.

Identity fraud dropped 28% during 2010

Credit unions that have applied more stringent criteria to authenticate users and determine credit risk will be happy to learn their efforts work. The number of identity fraud victims in 2010 dropped by 28% to 8.1 million U.S. adults--the largest single-year decrease since 2003. And the total amount decreased to $37 billion--the smallest amount in eight years. However, consumers out-of-pocket expenses rose significantly--63%, said a new study.

The survey, independently produced by San Francisco-based Javelin Strategy & Research and whose results were released Tuesday, is the nation's longest-running study of identity fraud. It was sponsored by Fiserv, Intersections Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co. (Business Wire Feb. 8), and is based on 5,004 telephone interviews. Intersections Inc. is a CUNA Strategic Services provider.

The 8.1 million fraud victims were three million fewer than in 2009, and the total amount decreased from 2009's $56 billion to $37 billion. Javelin said consumers' costs rose significantly due to the types of fraud that were successfully perpetrated and an increase in "friendly fraud."

The study defined identity fraud as unauthorized use of another person's personal information to achieve illicit financial gain.

"Identity fraud underwent a marked decline and shift over the past year. This great news is a testament to the significant efforts businesses, the financial services industry and government agencies are making to educate consumers, protect data, and prevent and resolve identity fraud," said James Van Dyke, Javelin's president and founder. "Economic conditions also appear to have contributed to this year-over-year decline, as well as increased security measures and some significant law enforcement successes."

He noted the increase in out-of-pocket costs "carries a warning: Consumers cannot put their finances on autopilot or ignore important safeguards. Simple safeguards may dramatically reduce fraud risk, such as frequently monitoring banking, credit and other financial activities, securing computers and paper records, and activating electronic alerts to help prevent fraud and address the situation quickly when it occurs."

More on this subject at: http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/11/system020811-10.html

NCUA Outlines Board Financial Education Requirements for FCUs

Board members of federal credit unions must be able to examine a credit union balance sheet and explain its meaning and importance and must learn how to do that within six months of joining a board, according to a letter to credit unions sent today by NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz.

She wrote that the director should understand if the value of a line item is changing over time and what is the significance of that change. The director must also understand the credit union’s activities and both the potential risks and benefits.

In the letter, she emphasized that the agency’s goal is not to “increase examiner scrutiny of the financial skills of particular directors. Rather, examiners will evaluate whether the credit union has a policy in place to make available the appropriate training to enhance the financial knowledge of the directors.’’

She wrote that the FCU’s policy for financial education must include options for training for board members, including funding information and a summary of the timetable required.

The letter implements the regulation that the NCUA Board approved last year.

Social media gets new focus at NCUA

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), known already to "tweet" on Twitter, is enhancing its outreach through social media and has brought on a new employee to lead the charge.

The NCUA says it wishes to ensure a "vibrant and active presence in the social media sphere," which includes a presence, not only on Twitter, but Facebook, YouTube and other forms of electronic communications as well.

Kenzie Snowden is the NCUA's new social media and outreach specialist. She started in that position a week ago.

NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz said of the development, "The Social Media and Outreach Specialist position is about the future. NCUA is continuing to explore all avenues to enhance communication with consumers, the credit union industry, and other audiences. I look forward to NCUA reaching new audiences, and new levels of transparency, through the outreach that will be initiated by our Social Media program."

Prior to joining the NCUA, Snowden did a stint in social media development with the public affairs office at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Did you dream about cards replacing cash? You dreamed too small.

by Ron Daly

Maybe we've aimed a little low...

Granted, most of us didn't see the change coming - "Smartphone? What the heck is a smartphone?!?" we said in disbelief. Sure, we had Blackberries, but the iPhone surfaced and struck a mighty blow to the way we think about our cell phones. Maybe the phone wasn't the important part. Maybe the smart is where the new money is.

And boy, is there ever money in smartphones. Not only in the app market, mind you, but in the transfer of money between a buyer and a seller. There are mobile banking apps, of course. There are PFM apps. There's even a device from Square that allows a person to swipe a credit card on their phone. That's pretty mind-blowing. But Starbucks - that's right, Starbucks - has just invented their own way to pay for things via smartphone.

From the Transaction Directory:

"Today, one in five Starbucks transactions is made using a Starbucks Card and mobile payment will extend the way our customers experience and use their Starbucks Card," said. Brady Brewer, vice president of Starbucks Card and Brand Loyalty.

Last year, Starbucks customers loaded $1.5 billion onto their cards, a 21 percent increase from 2008.

In a related story, CNN Money reports on the growing popularity of “mobile currency,” whereby customers use their mobile phones in place of cash or credit cards.

“There’s a lot of money at stake if it’s done right,” said Omar Green, director of strategic mobile initiatives at Intuit.;

For years, we've talked as an industry and as a society about the end of cash, the next wave of finance, and what the future had in store for our money. And maybe we were dreaming small - we just figured debit use would increase and cash would start to drop off as a form of payment. We weren't counting on smartphones to be the next step. Were we?

Well, as recently as a year ago, Newsweek was predicting that the cell phone would edge its way in as a payment method, as did creditcards.com. And here we are, seeing one of America's most interesting businesses jump in and get wet.

While we are fighting the Interchange battle, who's watching this critical shift in the payment system? No more checks, no more Visa, no more MasterCard OR Interchange income...

January News and Views Published Below

CU SECURITY & TECHNOLOGY News - Providing a brief summary of news and information related to security and technology issues for credit unions - Plus some interestingand fun web sites . . .

(Click on photo to enlarge)