At our January birthday party we had a workshop on financial protection and scams presented by Lynn Welock of the Royal Bank and RCMP Const. Tracey.
Some of the tips we were given on using our bank card are keeping our personal code a secret, never share your pin or card with anyone, shield your pin when using a debit machine, if you become uncomfortable for any reason walk away, make sure to retrieve your debit card right away when you are finished, memorize your pin number and don’t use personal numbers for your code, and only carry the id you need with you not all your id.
Other tips that were given were don’t sign blank cheques, don’t sign documents you don’t know or understand, have a power of attorney (someone you really trust) but not your spouse, keep really accurate financial records, don’t give out your personal information on the phone or internet, and don’t make donations over the phone.
Power of Attorney for Banking Purposes: needs to be someone you really trust (not your spouse), needs to be able to pay your bills etc at the bank, you should put the power of attorney’s name on the account(but it must be a really trustworthy person), safety deposit box you need to keep a list in a secret place in your home and tell the power of attorney where that list is, and have 2 people listed on the safety deposit box card, then the 2 people can check the box to ensure that all the list is present and accounted for.
RCMP Constable Tracey gave us a list of the top 10 scams and the top 3 are health claims, ID Theft (shred everything), and home repairs (usually roofs). The rest are posted at the Centre for everyone to view.
Don’t forget our Monthly Birthday Party on Wednesday Feb. 17, at 3 pm. Following the birthday party there will be a presentation by Alice Weber of Parks Canada Agency on the 1910 CPR disaster of the immigrant workers and a demonstration on making cranes for the 1910 project.
On Thursday, Feb. 18, the Senior Genology Group will be meeting for a workshop at 7 pm at the Seniors Centre. Please come out and join the group we would love to have you join us. You can contact any Executive and they will point you in the right direction to get further information.
Dinner out is at the Hong Kong Restaurant at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, Feb. 24, and the cutoff for signing up is on Monday, Feb. 22, at 3:30 pm.
We have had a 90% renewal rate in membership by the end of January 2010, and have had several new members already sign up for the 2010 year. Congratulation seniors of Revelstoke very well done. We hope to see many new faces this year and look forward to seeing all the members. There are still some outstanding membership renewals to happen so hope to see those members who haven’t had time to renew to please do so.
Please make sure and check out bulletin boards for updates and changes in the activities and events. And please take special note to check the dates and times and computer classes being offered. As some of the times and dates have had to be changed to accommodate the tutors.
And again, seniors, this is your column if there are items or topics you would like to see included please let me know and I will certainly take the time to accommodate. And I look forward to the rest of the 2010 year and serving the seniors of Revelstoke. And again I want to thank the membership for their vote of confidence in reelecting me to my position on the Executive of the Revelstoke Senior Citizens’ Association.
