Name-Change ‘Service’ May Not Serve
Question: With the marriage season coming up you might be interested in passing along my experience with a so-called “document service” that zeroes in on newlyweds.
Just a couple of weeks after my recent marriage, I received an official-looking letter--addressed to me in my new name--which pointed out that “County government records indicate a change in your name due to wedding. As a result of this, you must apply for a change of name before a new Social Security card can be issued to you. Social Security law requires that every applicant for a change of name on their Social Security card must submit documents and information before this can be done.”
The letter then went on to offer to do this for me for $10. I called my local Social Security office and was told that this could be done without using this service, but that I would have to come down, bring my marriage license and fill in an application. I figured it would be worth $10 to avoid this, so I sent my money in.
Another Organization
Nothing happened, so in a few weeks I tried to call this outfit in Washington, but instead got another organization with a similar name that is apparently legitimate. They had no record of my $10, needless to say. A few weeks later, I got still another letter from a similar outfit. I thought you might like to warn your readers about these firms and their $10 offers.--E.B.
Answer: Duly noted and thanks for the tip. Dana Edwards, a spokesman in San Francisco for the Social Security Administration’s department of external affairs, notes that there is nothing illegal about an organization performing this sort of service and charging for it (as long as they actually do it, of course). The only trouble with the whole thing is that it’s a perfectly useless service--it saves you nothing.
“What these companies do,” Edwards adds, “is take the information you give them, copy it in our form and then send it back to you.”
In other words, you’re right back where you started.
“The Social Security office still has to see the original license or a certified copy of it. You don’t really have to come to the Social Security office in person--you can do it by mail--but some people don’t like to entrust an original marriage license to the Postal Service.”
So, there you are. Even if the “document service” had filled out the necessary form (for the $10 you sent them) and sent it back to you, where are you? You are still faced with the necessity of either going down to your local Social Security office or sending in a certified copy of the license.
Exactly where you were without this “service.”
And still more on the lottery:
Q: What happens when you do buy a lottery ticket that has three Entry scratch-offs? What I’m really wondering is: How long do you have to sit on pins and needles waiting for your name to be called for the Big Spin? When can you relax knowing that your name isn’t going to be drawn?--R.T.
A: If you haven’t been blessed with a phone call “in three or four weeks,” according to John Schade, assistant director of public affairs for the state Lottery Commission, you can pretty well go back to work knowing that you held a bummer.
Random Drawing
As the Entry forms are received in Sacramento, each holder is assigned a number, and the information is fed into computer pools of 6,250 such numbers. (Don’t ask why 6,250. The statisticians figure these things out.) Then, at 9 a.m. every Friday morning (at a session open to the public), five numbers (and matching names) are drawn at random from each pool, and the other numbers are wiped out. From 15 to 20 names are drawn from the pools, depending on the number of tickets processed, and the 15 to 20 spinners are selected for the next-week’s Saturday spin (the number of spinners will vary between 15 and 20 too because some may be held over for the following week’s spin).
Drawees are notified by telephone the same day, Schade said, although some of the finalists (it being Friday and the beginning of the weekend) may not get the word until the following Monday. A member of the lottery’s security force then checks out each finalist personally, and the 15 to 20 spinners are invited to Sacramento for the spin-off the following Saturday morning.
The company producing the show pays travel expenses for anyone living more than 100 miles from Sacramento, plus Friday night’s hotel accommodation--just for the winner. (If you’re going to make a party out of it and bring the whole family along, that’s on you.) The entire drawing is taped, then edited and aired at 7:30 Saturday night over 11 TV stations around the state.
“You just don’t have time to cram all 20 spins into a half-hour show,” Schade explains.
What are your chances of buying a ticket with three Entry scratch-offs? One in 2,000. This means that in the average month about 45,000 Entrys are won.
What are your chances of being drawn for the Big Spin once you turn in your three Entrys? One in 1,250.
And then, on stage--and a bundle of nerves--what are your chances of hitting it big on the 100-slot wheel? Here is how the 100 slots break down:
Grand prize ($10,280,000 as this is written; it’s the largest “instant winner” prize in the history of state lotteries): three slots.
Big Prize ($1 million): six slots.
$100,000: 20 slots.
$50,000: 30 slots.
$10,000: 41 slots.
Q: Concerning the state lottery: Can a $1-million (or more) winner transfer his 20-year winnings to another person?
For example, suppose someone wins $50,000 for 20 years, gets his first $50,000 check and then someone offers to buy the remaining 19 $50,000 payments for, say, $300,000 (or less) in cash? Can it be accomplished? If not, why not?--C.H.
A: An intriguing idea, certainly, and it’s one that is fairly commonplace in some financial transactions. (For instance: An individual inherits a 30-year mortgage from his father, which, at 9%, yields him $200 a month and still has 22 years to run. He’d rather take a lump sum, however, so he’ll sell the mortgage off to someone with more patience, but at a discount from the face amount of the mortgage--a sufficient discount to give the new holder of the mortgage an effective rate of return considerably higher than 9%.)
Lottery winnings, however, don’t work that way, according to Schade. Winnings are non-transferable under the rules adopted by the commission and can be paid only to the ticket holder or to his estate. Period.
Your question was obviously flushed out by our last hypothetical discussion about the accuracy of calling an 85-year-old Big Spin winner a “millionaire,” when, actuarially, there little chance that he’ll live long enough to collect the entire $1 million. Under your plan, he’d be able to sell it for, say, $300,000--a figure that he might be able to romp through in the time remaining to him.
Sorry. The state can’t structure it that way.
Don G. Campbell cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to consumer questions of general interest. Write to Consumer VIEWS, You section, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.
