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What steps do you take to protect your identity?


FloridaLisa
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Good morning,

 

Tried to use my debit for a bulk grocery purchase and it was denied. I knew something was up and sure enough, when I got home, my bank had called reporting suspicious activity. They froze the card but a $500ish ATM transaction went through in Texas yesterday. I'll need to formally contest that one and my (amazingly great) bank will get that worked out.

 

BUT. This is the 2nd time in the last 6 months I've had suspicious activity and had to get a new card.

 

Is it online ordering? (Hello Christmas)

Is it running it through at gas stations?

Is it using my card in the dentist office?

 

The one thing I've learned so far is to always use CREDIT at the gas pump, not debit. Supposedly the illicit card readers can't pick up a credit transaction?

 

What do you do? Can you help me compile a big list I can incorporate into our everyday living to protect our identity?

 

Thanks!

Lisa

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For one thing, we don't have debit cards. We still use *gasp* checks! If we need cash and the bank is closed, we can write a check for $50 over at our local grocery store. We have one credit card, that is through our bank, and they are really great about watching for suspicious activity. I also frequently check purchases online, to make sure there aren't any charges we didn't make.

 

Never, ever let your d-card or c-card out of your sight. Restaurants are the biggest problem, because they take your card back to be scanned.

If you buy at a kiosk or someplace that uses a manual/slide machine for ccs, then make sure to get the carbon copy.

Buying online, make sure it says https in the url and has a little padlock. Then watch your bill closely for a while if buying from someplace new.

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We don't use debit cards at all. We always use credit cards (paying them off at the end of the month - never carrying a balance). That way, if they get the number, the money doesn't come out of our account! We've had our credit cards compromised before, but the bank has always handled it right away before we even noticed it. Usually they'll call and say, "Did you make a $xxx purchase at xxx store?" Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes the answer is no! If it's no, they take the charge off and send us out a new card. No big deal.

 

My DH also says not to show your driver's license when a store is taking your credit card. While the store will say it's for your safety, they could do just as well just asking you to verifiy the zip code (gas stations often do this now). Your driver's license gives them your billing address, so they can steal your card number more easily if they see your license. It's also in the card agreement for Mastercard (and probably others) that they are NOT allowed to do this, so DH has told stores as such and gotten policies changed. They asked him for it at JCPenney one day, and he complained to the manager. They no longer ask for it there now. :)

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We had an incident happen after a vacation in Florida. We arrived back home and a few days later received a call from the credit card agency that the card was being used in Kentucky at WalMart. The credit card company said to NEVER allow your card out of your sight. IOW, don't give the credit card to a waiter who takes it somewhere (away from the table) to run it. Apparently they make a quick copy of the card and POOF your number is available for sale. I've noticed that many restaurants now have their waiters run the cards at the table on a portable scanner. Also, they told us that Florida was especially bad for that sort of thing. I'm so sorry you have to deal with this. Thankfully the CC companies understand the problem and we have never had to pay for those charges.

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We have debit cards but NEVER use them. This year all the adults living here have had fraud incidents. Our bank dealt with them after we filled out paperwork galore. Since we never use our cards, it's clear to us that it is the BANK's problem with security not us. We bank at a locally owned bank, not a big national one. We've let them know our feelings about this...we'll see.

 

Online we use our American Express and watch it like a hawk. Never had a problem with online stuff, but dh travels and sometimes someone at a hotel will try to use his card. Amex catches it pretty fast.

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So, what I'm reading from those who have replied so far is that the primary way to avoid credit fraud is just not to use a debit card at all! Kinda defeats the convenience of having it in the first place. For the last few months I've been lax about using our cash envelope system, but I'm thinking I may go back to that.

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We use our debit cards all the time A LOT. Ever since they became available. We've had one problem -- a charge at WalMart on DH's card that he didn't make. I think it was somewhere around $35. He caught it, the bank refunded the money promptly w/o any hassle at all, cancelled his card and sent him a new one in a couple of days. For the amount that we've used our debit cards over the years, we figure that's a miniscule amount of problem/risk. We do use our cc for buying gas (always) and usually at restaurants. We've never had a problem with a cc.

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Good morning,

 

Tried to use my debit for a bulk grocery purchase and it was denied. I knew something was up and sure enough, when I got home, my bank had called reporting suspicious activity. They froze the card but a $500ish ATM transaction went through in Texas yesterday. I'll need to formally contest that one and my (amazingly great) bank will get that worked out.

 

BUT. This is the 2nd time in the last 6 months I've had suspicious activity and had to get a new card.

 

Is it online ordering? (Hello Christmas)

Is it running it through at gas stations?

Is it using my card in the dentist office?

 

 

 

 

I never use my debit card except at the ATM. I just find debit cards to be a hassle....yeah if something happens you'll get the money back, but it can take longer and you're stuck without funds for a while til they get it straightened out. Honestly, with the amount of issues you've had, I'd really recommend using a credit card that you pay off every month. It works out the same, and many cards have cash back bonuses. Also, you're not liable for as much if someone uses your credit card somewhere else. I've had it happen twice in the last 5 years with my credit card, both times the bank noticed and called me within minutes of fraud occurring. I didn't have to deal with any paperwork at all, the bank verbally went through the last several days of transactions and I would just say that it was or wasn't me doing the charging. Then a few weeks later I'd get a letter showing everything.

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