Avoid Credit Card Theft
Credit card theft is something we are all weary of, but do we do enough to protect ourselves? A former colleague of mine was a victim of credit card theft this past May. Fortunately for her she picked up on the fraudulent activity within days of the card being compromised after calling to get an account balance. It’s a scary thing when someone breaks into your safe haven.
Just last month the Department of Justice announced that more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers were allegedly stolen by a group of hackers. They designed a program that was able to find its way around a network’s firewall to steal credit and debit card information. This effected Hannaford’s, 7-Eleven, and Heartland Payment Services customers. Inevitably it will happen again, but there are some things you can do to protect yourself.
Protection Tips
- Call and request a new credit card number from your lending bank every two years. The reason it’s important to change your account number and not just cancel your card and apply for a new one is because the length of time you stay with a credit card company is counted positively toward your FICO score.
- Become more vigilant. Check out your account statement once a week online or make a quick call to ensure the balance is consistent to where you believe it should be.
- Don’t ever write your entire account number on a check if you are manually sending in a payment. The last four numbers are sufficient. The billing department will be able to match your name and cross reference the last four numbers to apply your payment.
- An alert service is great to have for several reasons. If you have a credit card that you seldom use you may not realize it has been compromised. If the perpetrator changed the billing address you’d never even receive a statement. That would in turn lead to missed payments and a poor FICO score. Nowadays you can sample a service for FREE and see what you think. It’s nice to have that insurance in your back pocket.
All it takes is a few simple steps to help keep you one step ahead of the hackers.
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good advice!
smart
very good to know
awesome tips….cool =)
scary but it happens! one of my friend was messed up through this!
without cards there is no problems
Wow this is really good infor thanks, this is good stuff.
I didn’t know you could request a new credit card number. Thanks!
Very informative! This is very helpful. Thank you!
good one!thx
Thanks for the information. Very helpful.
Good info, will be helpful
I agree; this is good info…
This information really helped me alot… very scary to think of this but it does happen…
very scary…
“…130 million credit and debit card numbers were allegedly stolen by a group of hackers.” That’s a huge number, thanks for the informative article.
Credit cards are convenient & easy to use but you must be careful on how you use them. Do Not Buy More Than You Can Afford. I use one credit card & pay it off monthly – no interest fees.
– Very Important – be very watchful of your credit balance – now it is easy ’cause you can check online – which I do at least once a week.
– several years ago someone stole new credit card checks sent to me – used em then opened 2 more credit cards in my name. I was very fortunate ’cause I got it straighted out within 2 months. BUT I could have stopped unauthorized buying much sooner had I been watching my balance.
I also called the credit card company & any others I have had & use – to STOP sending me their checks -. If I am going to use the credit card I do not need their checks.
This would be a wise move for most of you.