Live chat with consumer experts

From The Plain Dealer about National Consumer Protection Week:

As part of National Consumer Protection Week, The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com are hosting a live chat from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at cleveland.com/consumeraffairs.

Join us to get instant answers to your questions about:

• • Credit scores and reporting
  • Privacy and ID theft
  • Home repair and other services
  • Mail fraud and scams
  • Debt collection
  • Robocalls
  • Consumer contracts
  • Your consumer rights and more.

Visit cleveland.com/consumeraffairs during the lunchtime chat to get advice from local experts from agencies including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Better Business Bureau.

To participate, create or sign into your account at cleveland.com before the chat.

I'll be retweeting some questions and answers on Twitter. Follow me on Twitter @consumerwriter to join the discussion there. The hashtag for the event is #ncpwcle.

Other events during the week include:

• Free shred events. You've got two opportunities to drop off sensitive documents you'd like to safely dispose of but don't have the patience to shred on your own. Drop bagged or boxed papers off at the U.S. Post Office customer lot from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, 2400 Orange Ave., Cleveland.
• Consumer resource fairs. National Consumer Protection Week kicks off with a consumer resource fair from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday at Tower City. Can't make it? A second resource fair is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at University Hospitals' Main Atrium, 11100 Euclid Ave. Local agencies will be on hand to provide referrals and take-home materials.
• Consumer call-ins. Channel 5 will host a consumer call-in from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday. Channel 3 hosts one from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The stations will announce the call-in numbers during the evening newscasts.

There's also a straggler event -- but one worth hitting if you're looking for free legal advice about a civil (not criminal) matter. Cleveland Legal Aid will hold an advice clinic from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. March 15 at the Cleveland Public Library's Hough branch, 1566 Crawford Road, Cleveland.