AH the power of a credit card! For a lot of people getting their hands on their first credit card can be as much of a power rush as their first car. Like driving a car, you need to take having a credit card very very seriously.
You may enjoy the freedom of having a credit card to use for those times you are caught without money in pocket. Be aware that thieves and fraud artists love the rush of having YOUR credit card to use as they wish.
Credit card fraud is a crime that you wont catch right away, you wont notice it until you check your credit card statment. Number one rule, check that statement as soon as it arrives!
There are ways you can protect yourself from becoming the victim of credit card fraud. Be vigilant at all times. Treat your ATM card (also known as an Interac card) in the same manner you do your credit card.
Here are some tips to help you stay safe:
1. Always know where your card is both when you are out in public and when you are home. Placing your cards, all your cards and personal information in a secure place at home guards against losing them to burglary.
2. Never email credit card details and NEVER respond to emails requesting credit card or banking information. I don’t care how real that email requesting the information is, DON’T! If you are really determined that it might be legit, look up your financial institutions phone number (don’t use what they list in the email) and call them.
3. Always activate and sign new credit cards immediately. You want your signature attached to your name, not the lucky stiff who got his hands on your card and signed it.
4. When using your credit card, don’t let the clerk wander off with it. Keep your eyes on the clerk and your card. Don’t be afraid to question any action with your card, it is your card and an honest clerk will gladly answer your question.
5. Take the receipt from the transaction into your hand, and check immediately if the receipt printed your credit card number on it. If it did, get a dark pen and immediately mark out both sides of the receipt to obscure the number. It only takes some trial and error for a determined fraudster to figure out expiry date and even security code once your credit card number is in hand.
6. Check your credit card statement as soon as it arrives. Account for every transaction. If you find any wrong transactions, phone the company or the issuing bank immediately and report it.There is usually a time frame for transactions to be reversible and the sooner you jump on the problem the better.
7. Be wary of authorizing anyone to do repeated transactions on your credit card. I allowed an internet provider to debit my credit card every month for my dial up connection. I notified them last August to cancel my account, informed the bank in October that they were continuing to charge my card. In January the bank reversed several months of their charges after they had been unable to get a response from them. They once again debited my account at the end of January and now the bank is wanting to cancel my card and issue another. What a huge nuisance!
8. If, inspite of your careful vigilance, you can’t find your credit card for any reason, report it lost immediately. They can block the usage of it just in case it has been lifted on you. If you become a creature of habit in where you store your card, you will know with greater confidence if it has been stolen.
9 Many credit cards double as an ATM card with a PIN (Personal Identification Number) for you to use when using a banking machine for cash withdrawals. NEVER tell anyone your PIN, always choose some obscure number that you can remember.
One way to create a backup for your PIN number is to choose a word that you’ll remember fairly easily and calculate it’s numerical equivalent. For example, let’s use CAT. Figure out the number inthe alphabet for each letter… for CAT it would be 3.. 1.. 20. There you go, you could use 3120 for your pin. If you forget your number but remember the word you used you can retrieve your PIN from your memory without writing the PIN down for a thief to find.
For more security you could use a 4 letter word and add the digits of double digit numbers to render them into single digit numbers. If I’d used CATS instead of CAT.. it would be 3, 1, 20, 19 and then adding the double digit numbers to get one I’d have 3, 1, 2, 1 (19 adds to 10 which added together gives me 1) so the pin would be 3121.
10 You should always use separate PIN numbers for each card. That can become confusing remembering which is which. Figure out a system that works for you but DON’T use personally indentifying reminders like your birth date, your address or your drivers license.
The moment you use information like that you then have another piece of information which needs to be carefully guarded. Use something that means something to you but would be innocuous to someone else and keep it to yourself. It might a word from the title of a book you enjoyed, someone else’s birthdate, or a long dead pet .. you get the picture… obscure but meaningful for you.
11. Don’t use an ATM that you are at all suspicious about. Report your suspicion to the bank that owns it immediately.
12. When using your card at an ATM or your bank card at a retail store, ALWAYS shield the entry of your PIN number. If someone is standing closer than you are comfortable with, ask them to step back and be even more careful that your finger movements on the keypad are shielded. A sharp thief can pick up finger movements enough without seeing the numbers to make a pretty good guess.
13. Never give out credit card info over the phone unless you initiated the call and are very confident who you are talking to.
14. Online use of credit cards can make you very vulnerable. You want to be sure of the site you are making the transaction on that the purchase page is secure. The page address should start with https://. Unless I’m really familiar with the site, I usually avoid giving my credit card to any site. Sites which accept online payment through an online payment processor has a lot more confidence from me. When I can run the payment through a site like Paypal, I can avoid giving out my credit card number all over the place.
Always narrow the risk of using your card to protect your card and your credit.
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