4. Where can I get credit card ratings? And now that I have 27 credit cards how do I get out of debt!

If looking for low rate credit cards, try sites like CardWeb http://www.cardweb.com/. It offers very useful charts of different credit cards, their websites, telephone numbers, and annual percentage rate of interest. CardRatings http://www.cardratings.com/ is full of information, news and listings of credit card reviews by consumers. A very popular site http://www.bankrate.com/ offers the consumer everything on credit cards, mortgage rates, CDs, automobile loans, taxes, real estate, and much more. It is quite a comprehensive site.

Consumers with debt problems can choose from many sites offering financial, debt counseling and hands-on assistance. One such site is the National Foundation for Credit Counseling at http://www.nfcc.org/. This web site has a section called DebtAdvice in which a consumer can contact a local center where he can receive assistance in debt management. Additional topics covered here include bankruptcy, credit reports and more.

There are many reliable websites that deal with fraud and the dangers of scams and other illegal activities. Some of these sites are sponsored by non-profit organizations willing to help consumers against fraud. Fraud.org at http://www.fraud.org/ offers consumers plenty of advice, a toll-free fraud hotline, and an online complaint form among other things. Every major government agency now warns citizens of the dangers of fraudulent activities. For instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission http://www.sec.gov/consumer/cyberfr.htm,
The United States Treasury Department http://www.ustreas.gov/irs/ci/tax_fraud/index.htm,
The Medicare Office http://www.medicare.gov/FraudAbuse/HowToReport.asp,
The Food and Drug Administration's page http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/1999/699_fraud.html,
The United States Postal Service http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/welcome.htm, and so on.

If consumers want to complain about a business, they can try the Better Business Bureau: http://www.bbb.org/. One can check, for instance, if a business called "Booking Actors & Models, Inc." from Hollywood, CA has an unsatisfactory record. The 'BBB' will provide assistance to consumers in solving their problems with businesses. This may require arbitration and a hearing to settle matters promptly. The arbitrators are Better Business Bureau volunteers with a reputation of fairness and neutrality. The Better Business Bureau maintains in its homepage timely information on charities. It also informs citizens if any of these organizations listed meets their standards.

Computer access and the Internet have made identity theft one of the fastest growing crimes in the country. Many government agencies provide now information on how to avoid or protect oneself from this crime. One of the first places to check is the Social Security Site at http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/idtheft.htm. Here, one can obtain information on how to report this crime and the steps that have to be taken to correct the situation. Another important site is the ID Theft Center http://www.idtheftcenter.org/. This site offers the consumer a listing of resources available in dealing with this problem.

The United States Department of Justice also offers an identity theft page at http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html. Consumers can make use of Google http://www.google.com/ to check their social security numbers, driver license numbers and other important IDs. Just typing the number one can see if it appears anywhere in the World Wide Web.

Every time one is ready to sit down to have dinner, the phone rings. And guess what? It's the same old offer to subscribe to AT&T or MCI or, perhaps to try a new special Star Ledger subscription. This happens almost every day. How can I stop this from happening? Well, there are some steps that a consumer can do to 'reduce' a high level of telemarketing requests. The FTC at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-tmark.htm has an informative page on how to deal with telemarketers and instructions on how to cut down their constant intrusion. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission has recently set up a National Do Not Call Registry. Consumers can put their names and telephone numbers into this registry either online or by telephone. This system is expected to cut down up to 70% the number of telemarketing calls. The other government agency that can help is the Federal Communications Commission at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/tcpa.html where they advise consumers on how to cut down the number of telephone solicitors.

Another aspect of telemarketing is what is known as 'spam'. There is great concern now about how disruptive and costly is to deal with the constant barrage of pop-up ads and email messages loading people's computers. One particularly noxious problem is the proliferation of virus and spy/adware in cyberspace. The Federal Trade Commission at http://www.ftc.gov/spam gives the most up-to-date information on this serious problem. Another is the non-profit site called Fight Spam! http://spam.abuse.net/spam/. It brings consumers the latest developments in the media about the war on spam.

An excellent web site that can answer this question is WebMD at http://my.webmd.com/drugs. WebMD also provides extensive information on diseases, medical conditions, food, nutrition, and much more. Website Drugs.com http://www.drugs.com/ offers not only information about medications and their side effects but also provides pictures of the pills.

The FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, a governmental regulatory agency, provides timely reports on recently approved drugs, as well as, warnings on medications that have been reported as harmful to consumers. The FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at http://www.fda.gov/cder is an excellent place where to read about the latest information on prescription and non-prescription drugs and other health issues.

If what we need is information on diseases, their diagnosis, prevention and other data, we can try the United States National Library of Medicine at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/. This invaluable site offers MEDLINEplus, a great research tool for medical information. One other site worth mentioning is the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) at http://www.cdc.gov/. This organization offers the most up-to-date information on diseases in the country (from Lyme disease to West Nile to Anthrax).

The American Medical Association http://www.ama-assn.org/aps/amahg.htm offers a databank of physicians in the country with some information about their professional background. Another site called the American Board of Medical Specialties http://www.abms.org/login.asp offers similar data on physicians, although it requires a free registration. To check on the credentials of any physician - and possible questionable reports on them - we can try http://www.tese.com/css at Your Doctor's Credentials. This site lists all the state licensing boards in the country. It also explains how to find a good specialist. If the doctor in question works in New Jersey, one can look in New Jersey's Official Debarment Report at http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/debarred.

Public Citizen, a national non-profit public interest organization also has a good page on questionable hospitals, or hospitals that have had violations and irregularities. http://www.publiccitizen.org/questionablehospitals/index.html.

When first choosing a nursing home, a consumer needs to know how to go about researching the background of nursing facilities, and how to prepare oneself to go through the red tape with insurance companies, state and federal agencies, and private organizations. One good place to start this search is by going to the American Health Care Association at http://www.longtermcareliving.com/. This non-profit association brings consumers the latest information about nursing facilities.

A watchdog nonprofit organization called Member-of-the-Family http://memberofthefamily.net/usregistry.htm provides a wonderful national nursing home registry. In addition, it offers a national nursing home watch list for facilities that have been cited for various violations. http://www.memberofthefamily.net/usmap.htm. Medicare's website at http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Home.asp has a great link called Nursing Home Compare, where the public can see in full detail, how nursing facilities compare to one another. This online tool helps users decide what to choose and what to avoid.