- If you shop at Winners or HomeSense stores, you should be aware that hackers may have stolen your credit or debit card information. The parent company TJX Companies Inc. said in a press release that the full extent of the theft and affected customers is not yet known.
- Another serious security breach involves CIBC (TSX: CM), whose Talvest Mutual Funds subsidiary announced today that a computer hard drive that may have contained important client information (such as names, addresses, dates of birth, SIN numbers etc.) has gone missing.
- According to an Australian Bank’s iPod index, which compares the price of a 2GB Nano in local currency, Canada is the cheapest place to buy the MP3 player. They might well be right because an iPod Nano costs $159.95 at Future Shop and seems to suggest that the US dollar could depreciate further against the loonie.
- Is a price war brewing between the various discount brokers in Canada? Rob Carrick writes in The Globe and Mail that CIBC Investors Edge is offering a trading package, in which investors can make 50 equity and option transactions online for a flat rate of $395.
- The Bank of Canada decided this week to keep interest rates steady at 4.25%, which means that the prime rate charged by the banks stays at 6.0%. The news release that accompanies the interest rate announcement suggests that the Bank is likely to keep rates at the current level in their next meeting in March.
- Tom Bradley writes in his SteadyHand blog on how to succeed in our New Year financial resolutions.
- Columnist Jennifer Wells writes in The Toronto Star on a Statistics Canada study of workers in manufacturing and services who were downsized between 1988 and 1997. The study found that five years after they were downsized, such workers were earning 18% to 28% less than they were prior to their job loss.
- Paul Farrell, columnist for MarketWatch.com reports on the performance of five “lazy” portfolios that he tracks and finds that simple portfolios made up of index funds still outperformed the S&P 500 by significant margins over the past five years.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Finance Guide 101 // Jan 19, 2007 at 2:59 am
Hello CC,
I like this and that post, which covers all the information about credit card security, personal information security, iPods price, stocks and banks information you have covered very important issues in one post. Thank you for sharing.
2 Ryan // Jan 19, 2007 at 11:14 am
I can’t prove this of course, but I believe we may have been one of the victims of the Winners/Homesense security breach. My wife made numerous purchases in Nov/Dec at both of these stores and never actually had the card physically stolen, yet in mid December someone was trying to buy hundreds of dollars worth of auto parts on 2 different occasions using our cards number. Luckily CitiBank caught it right away and put a stop to it. Unfortunately we had to destroy our cards and wait 2 weeks for a new one to come…right when we really needed them…peak Xmas shopping season
I would have to say though that I have been very impressed with CitiBank security. Whenever there is even the slightest difference in our spending patterns the folks at CitiBank are on top of things. It drives my wife crazy though, as she often has to speak to one of them at the checkout. However, in this day and age of frequent credit card fraud I would rather they be too cautious than the other way around.
Ryan
3 Canadian Capitalist // Jan 19, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I got a call a few weeks back from our MasterCard asking if some of the transactions on our cards were genuine. We didn’t know why they were asking but now we realize that it is because we shopped at Winners in November.
4 Phil S // Jan 19, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I don’t shop at any of the places mentioned nor do I bank or invest with CIBC.
But several years ago, someone duplicated my mastercard and was spending like crazy in Brampton while I was doing my own shopping downtown and I hit my credit limit. I didn’t have to pay for any of the fraudulent purchases, but I think the store may have had to accept some responsibility in my case… The thief bought 3 TVs, 5 DVD players, 2 VCRs, literally about 8 thousand dollars of multiple sets of entertainment equipment from one store. They also went to a department store and bought about 3 thousand dollars worth of junk.
Since that incident, I now intentionally keep my credit limit very low (I call them up and ask them to reduce my credit limit every time they raise it on me), so if it happens again in the future, it will be easily detected. For example, if someone stole or copied my card today, they wouldn’t even be able to make that single transaction! It’s the electronic equivalent of not carrying a lot of cash in my wallet.
This is just my suggestion to others out there, based upon my own past experience.
5 Big Cajun Man // Jan 22, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I saw the stats Canada data about the employees laid off, and it is what I have heard from fellow coworkers, who are working, but not for as much as they used to make. Interesting and depressing too.
BUT, give it 5 more years, and that many more boomers retiring, the scales may tip in the other direction, or all the jobs might go to China and India. Either way, it’s gonna be interesting. –C8j
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