It is just 5 digits number, but it impact to our life is amazing. According to wiki ZIP codes are “a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service (USPS) since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the code in the postal address”. Despite its kind of boring description, I found out today two articles that discuss about zip codes that I found on the internet. One mentioned about the most expensive zip codes area and later are zip codes that asked by store clerk.
Read more below if you want to know more about zip codes.
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We know stars reside all over the country, but where are the most expensive places that they live?
Los Angeles has always been home to some of the world’s most expensive real estate. But forget Beverly Hills, 90210: The new hot spot for multimillion-dollar mansions is Duarte, 91008. This small suburb northeast of downtown Los Angeles boasts a median cost for a house a whopping $4.2 million making it the most expensive housing market in the country. It also ranks No. 1 on Forbes’ annual ranking of America’s Most Expensive ZIP Codes.
Of course everybody knows living in Los Angeles is expensive, and Mauricio Umansky, a broker at Hilton & Hyland, says: “If you are a working actor you may choose to live in Mulholland Estates or Beverly Park (both in 90210), because you’re closer to the studios and the West Hollywood nightlife…Older actors tend to like Malibu because it’s discreet, you have serenity and privacy and security.”
But get out of the Hollywood scene and you’ll find Sean Penn and wife Robin Wright-Penn and their children live in Ross, Calif. (94957), a San Francisco suburb. The median home sale price is over a million dollars.
You can find Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise in Montecito (93108); the actors all own homes there. Montecito is a section of Santa Barbara, on California’s central coast. Median house prices there are about $2 million.
Then we have Alpine, N.J. (07620), home to many hip hop and rap celebrities such as Sean “Diddy” Combs, Fabolous and Lil’ Kim. The median price of a home, ahem, mansion here is around $3.4 million.
For those stars who demand privacy, Star Island, a man-made key off the coast of Miami, is called home. Believe it or not, paparazzi have been known to rent out jet skis to catch a glimpse and photos of celebrities residing in 33139. Shaquille O’Neal, singer Gloria Estefan and talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell, all call Star Island home, and get to enjoy the close proximity to Miami’s nightlife without living in the craziness of the city.
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Giving your zip code along with a credit card purchase is common practice. It happens at the grocery store, at the gas station, at some of your favorite clothing shops. Most of us don’t think twice about it; other more paranoid patrons will give a fake zip if they can get away with it.
But what are those paranoid purchasers so scared of? Why do stores ask for your zip code in the first place?
2 Roles of the Zip Code
When it comes to credit cards, your zip code plays a duel role. At places like a gas station or when a transaction involves the shipping of merchandise, providing a zip code is a security measure against credit card fraud.
More commonly, however, a zip code serves as a method to better understand a merchant’s consumer dynamics. Store owners can target marketing materials to a specific area based on zip codes, and can often even pinpoint a patron’s exact mailing address which they can maintain in their database.
The latter is what makes many consumers uneasy: they feel as though giving away information like a zip code is a violation of privacy, and heck – they already get enough junk mail. Another magazine is just a waste of paper.
New Credit Card & Zip Code Legislation in California
In mid-February, California became the first state to flat out prohibit retailers from requesting zip code information from their patrons, a ruling from The Supreme Court of California case Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma Stores. The ruling shows that, in California, a retailer violates the Credit Card Act by recording a customer’s zip code with credit card use; a zip code is now defined as “personal information” that is unnecessary for the transaction.
Zip codes can, however, still be requested for security measures.
More States to Follow Suit?
California’s ruling is not guaranteed to catch on. Some states, like Massachusetts, specifically spell out what is considered “personal information,” and zip codes aren’t always included in the list. In situations like that, consumers can generally opt out of giving their zip code to retailers if they find the request an invasion of privacy.
Other states, though, may find consumers fed up with requests for private information while making credit card purchases and lawsuits could continue to spring up. Stay tuned for what’s next!
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Source
http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2011/03/14/zip-codes-the-most-expensive-places-celebrities-reside/
http://www.creditnet.com/blog/credit-news/zip-codes-and-credit-cards
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Well, I hope above posting can be useful for anybody who wants to know about Zip Codes.
