Important Phone Numbers to Have

Minute monitor
To see how many of your plan minutes you've used, dial *646# if your carrier is Cingular; *4 for Sprint; #646# for T-Mobile; #646 for Verizon.


Credit card hotline
To report lost or stolen credit cards, the following numbers come in handy: 800-VISA-911 for Visa cards (800-847-2911), 800-MC-ASSIST for MasterCard (800-622-7747), 800-992-3404 for American Express and 800-DISCOVER for Discover cards (800-347-2683).


Your health insurer
Heading to the emergency room or about to schedule some surgery? Ring up your carrier to make sure you're approved for coverage. It's a lot more convenient than lugging around that fat book of policy details your employer gave you -- and a lot less expensive than paying out-of-network costs.

ICE
This is more a "peace of mind" tip than a money one, but ICE stands for "In case of emergency" and might help a hospital or cop reach your emergency contact person in a hurry. Put the acronym in front of the person's name (like "ICE -- Mom") in your speed dial and on your contact list. (Ignore e-mail hoaxes that say you'll somehow be vulnerable to virus attacks or extra charges for having an ICE entry. Those aren't true.) You also should have this information taped to or near your driver's license or whatever other ID you regularly carry, since that's likely to be checked first if you can't communicate.


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