Every so often, it’s a good idea to view your credit report. By law, Equifax and Transunion must provide you with your credit report for free. However, they charge you to see it instantly on their website. To get the free credit report, it always involved a form filled out and copies of some ID for you to send in by snail mail.

Transunion has stepped up and provided an automated phone service for requesting your credit report. The number is 1 (800) 663-9980. It uses an automated voice to read back some of your personal information that you have to confirm – and the voice is difficult to hear sometimes. However, it does make the process go quicker and recommend trying it once.

To do this by mail, they provide the forms on their sites:

• Equifax
• Transunion

I’ve always used a credit card that had purchase protection. It’s one of those “bonus” features that are found in most non-point cars that I think are really worth it. The TD Gold Select is one of the few cards that offer purchase protection and don’t have a fee. This protection even covers damages to an item you purchased:

Enjoy worry-free shopping with Purchase Security and Extended Warranty Protection. If an eligible item that you purchased in full with your eligible TD Visa Card is stolen or damaged within 90 days of purchase, it may be replaced or repaired or you will be reimbursed for it. If the item comes with a manufacturer’s warranty, you may be entitled to double the warranty period by up to 12 additional months.

There’s plenty of other cards that offer this, some without a fee – so shop around! It’ll protect you from purchasing broken tv’s.

Starting April 30, TD is going to be charging their customers for having a line-of-credit not using them. I’ve always had a line-of-credit available to me so I can use it in an emergency. It’s nice to have an available credit line that uses reasonable rates – especially compared to credit cards.

While I’m no fan of the current government efforts to stimulate the economy – their complaints about banks tightening up credit to consumers seem very valid when you see tactics like this. What incentive do you have to have a credit line available to you? Instead you have to close the account to waive the fee, only to reapply for it when you need it – and in an emergency that could be very difficult to do.

Having been a big fan of TD Bank in the past, this makes me doubt I will keep all my accounts there. The true test will be if all the other banks follow them with the fee, leaving Canadian banking customers all out in the cold.

When people ask me if they should get a variable or fixed-rate mortgage, they’re usually suprised that I always recommend variable. Many people think that getting a fixed mortgage is the way to prevent their payments from increasing when interest rates go up.

However, almost all banks offer a fixed payment, variable rate mortgage. This means that as interest rates change, the amount of money that goes to equity vs. interest will change, but it keeps your monthly payment the same.

It’s a very simple solution so that mortgage owners can benefit from lower rates – variable rate mortgages are almost always cheaper in the long run.