EVERY DAY CREDIT CARD USAGE SECURITY TIPS
My wife hates when I tell her to collect the receipt from the table at every restaurant we eat at or the gas station attendant after every fuel up. This led me to today’s blog topic of sharing some practical advice concerning credit card security that may seem miniscule but can save you some big bucks in the long run. SO PLEASE HEED THE WARNINGS BELOW
WARNING 1- NEVER USE YOUR DEBIT CARD OTHER THAN AT AN ATM
Reason: Debit cards pull directly from your money and often times it is very difficult to retrieve any funds taken directly from your account. Credit cards are typically more secure and have great security and recovery practices in place to satisfy claims quickly and credit your account balances back to normal.
WARNING 2- SHAKE ALL CARD READERS INCLUDING ATM’S & GAS STATIONS
Reason: Bad guys are very good at attaching fake or false hardware over good readers that have technology secreted within them to copy /save and send your info via the web to cohorts in pirating schemes. They can also attach small cameras above the pin pad to obtain your password so keep an eye out for suspicious looking hardware.
WARNING 3- ALWAYS KEEP YOUR CREDIT CARDS IN EYESIGHT & AVAOID KEEPING A TAB
Reason: A quick slight of the hand can run your card through a fraudulent reader in a bad guy or girls pocket that may work at a bar, club or restaurant. Same goes for keeping a tab. You could be intoxicated so you may forget all your charges or lose track and someone has a lot of time to get what they need from your card. Most of the time they can hold onto your information for months before selling it to off shore bad guys for them to hit you hard on charges down the road.
WARNING 4- ALWAYS KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS NO MATTER WHAT
Reason: Preferably you track all your transactions and overview them monthly but even if you don’t this is a good idea. This lets potential bad guys know your probably watching or at least keeping an eye on your accounts. Too many people today leave receipts or tell merchants to not waste the paper because they get online statements anyway. Well not everybody monitors their statements and do you really remember exact amounts of what you ate and drank from a month ago? If you are like me then you probably do not remember what you ate yesterday.
WARNING 5- OPEN AN ACCOUNT SEPARATE FROM YOUR PRIMARY FOR ONLINE BANKING
Reason: When and if one of your accounts is compromised from shady hackers or questionable sites then it won’t be such a big deal to shut down that account for a while so your financial institutions can investigate the impropriety and rectify your claim. It will also keep your primary accounts safe from large withdrawals or bill pay interruptions.