Credit Cards and Security

[DustMite]

I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to not get my credit card info stolen. What should I do?

(I know common sense stuff like don't tell everyone your card number. But besides that I'm pretty lost.)

[msuroo]

The biggest thing is to make sure your card issuer has a good fraud policy. That, and make sure you monitor your activity. With most cards, you aren't responsible for fraudulent charges as long as they are reported timely.

[SimplyViki]

Big seconding of the suggestion to monitor your activity. I slacked off on that after a while, and some asshole started charging my card for $50 and $90 bouquets in New York (I've never even been there).

[wildross]

Monitoring is the big thing. Some cards will let you put a limit on certain types of transactions as well. Check out the web page associated with your card and setup alerts to your phone if possible. The Chase ads are actually realistic. I've stopped fraud because I get the alerts on the phone (no, I'm not at the truck place right now. I'm at home!!) If you do a lot of on line shopping, then maybe a prepaid card would be good. ie, one that you 'fund' for each purchase. That way if it stolen, it's trivial to get rid of. We had a card at one time that let you generate a different card number for each merchant, but they discontinued that one.

[ellystar]

The biggest thing is to make sure your card issuer has a good fraud policy. That, and make sure you monitor your activity. With most cards, you aren't responsible for fraudulent charges as long as they are reported timely.

Pretty much this. I know people in general want to make sure their credit card numbers are safe and companies have safeguards in place, but in my opinion if crooks want to steal credit card numbers, they're going to get credit card numbers. You can protect your number to the best of your ability, but there's still a chance someone could get it. Monitoring is key.

One great fraud prevention some credit cards have is if your card is used somewhere away from where you live, they will contact you to make sure you are the one actually using the card. My debit card has this as well. You can prevent the calls and potentially having the company deny charges by making sure you call the credit card company and telling them where you'll be and for how long if you're going away.