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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thank you it is very educated especially to us
Wow! I will soon be getting a credit card but now I will be sure to make sure I’m extra careful with it.
What godd information . more people need to read it
i didnt know anything about this stuff but now i have any idea. this was very helpful information
they made some very good points I need to do that
Great tips. Keep it protected. It is hard to recover.
This was interesting!
I have never and will never get a credit card and this just confirms all I was taught in my personal finance class.
This was SOO helpful! thanks
I signed up for Lifelock to avoid any kind of identity theft.
Information like this is a service!
GREAT TO KNOW
More people need to be aware and how easy it is to be taken advantage of, I check my balance and transactions every night. Very useful tips.
More people should be aware of the dangers of credit card theft. I check my balance and transactions every night. Great information.
good information but things happen
Wow!!!
What an interesting stuff for the entire world to know.
God bless you.
very helpful information
extremely helpful and informative
Nice pretty informative on the keeping safe from credit car theft. I would go insane if some stole my identity..
Hmm, this information is very useful, my dad should use it someday.
Very useful information and helpful, my dad should use do this someday.
I will use this information to help keep my accounts safe.
Thanks for the good advice
SO HELPFUL! I plan on getting a credit card to make small perchases just so i can establish credit! But ill definitely do some of the things they say!
Aticle very informational and helpful to all.. Be aware of the different scams out here in the world.