Venting

[monophoto]

OK - it's happened again. Someone attempted to charge something (membership in a dating service) against my credit card. Unfortunately, that's all too easy to do - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to cobble together a phony credit card number, and if that number happens to coincide with your actual credit, then it's your turn to deal with the hassle.

The credit card company recognized that the charges were fraudulent almost instantly, and immediately put a hold on my credit card. The fact that it happened to occur on the day my wife and I were traveling across the country was purely coincidental, and only added to the fun. But one phone call later the problem had been resolved - the old card restricted to use only in my my local area for two more days and then fully cancelled, and a new card in the mail.

But then comes the real hassle - updating all those on-line merchant accounts and automatically recurring charges. I keep a list of the accounts that have to be updated because this kind of thing seems to happen frequently - the last time before today was at the end of December. But the problem is that every one of them buries the credit card information deeply that it takes an extensive search to even find it, and every one of them has a different process for updating the stored information. Seems to me that a common sense solution here would be a uniform process followed by all web site developers that is designed to make it easy for consumers to deal with this recurring issue.

 

[mbroberg]

One thing you should stop doing is providing your credit card to on-line merchants for recurring payments. Most banks now offer on-line bill pay. If you really don't want to pay bills as they come in set up recurring bill payments through your bank. It is much more secure and you will never have the hassle of updating numerous accounts due to credit card fraud.

 

[Hubert H]

Michael is right on target with his suggestion.

 

[Jim Smith]

I travel quite a bit for business and I use my CC's for all my expenses to keep track for tax purposes so as you might expect, I've had this happen a couple of times a year for the past few years. Since then, I found that removing the three digit number from the back of the card prevents much of the online fraud as most places ask for this number as part of the payment process. You can write them on the back of a business card disguised as a phone number in case you're concerned that you'll forget the numbers. Just one other way to make it less convenient for the low life crooks in the world. I also have Lifelock as a prevention since my data was stolen from the Adobe Software database when their systems were hacked. When my information was found on computers in a former Soviet Eastern Block country, Adobe offered me "free" credit check twice a year, but I wasn't comfortable giving the crooks six months of time to ruin my credit. I really wish that the legal system would take this crime more seriously and give these bums they catch and find guilty a minimum of five years for the first offense and escalate it up from there. I also pay cash in all non-business related meals away from home. Just to make you feel even less comfortable, statistics show that as much as 70% of all identity theft originates in Doctor's offices. They have pretty much all of our information and quite often they have third party vendors process the billing. Yippee!!!

Jim Smith

 

[sbwertz]

I had mine stolen (apparently from a gas pump that had been tampered with). They had themselves a grand time at a resort in Florida before the CC company got them shut down. Didn't cost me anything except some hassle and a new card, but it really makes you feel violated.

 

[plantman]

Seems to be a lot of this going around lately !! Credit Card Co. e-mailed me a week ago Friday asking about some strange charges on one of my cards. Looks like I was trying to purchase $492 worth of food and another $500 worth of goods in Atlantic City, New Jersey at the same exact time my wife and I were dining out at a local restaurant here in Wisconsin and picking up some bird seed at the near by Fleet Farm. They refused the charges from any where out of my area, and asked me to call them. We closed down the account and destroyed the cars. New cards were sent to me and I was not on the hook for any charges I did not make. Only problem was the 7-10 business days it took to receive the new card. Your account is closed out, you have no credit card number to purchase anything, no automatic transfers go through, you can't even pay your account off or check if any more transactions have been made on it. Lucky for me I have several other cards I could use too keep things semi normal for the last two weeks. We also changed our phone number, just in case !! So, the hassle for the last two weeks has been trying to reset automatic payments, change contact numbers, and pay off this credit card, All which couldn't be done until I received my new cards today. I started the process at 7 AM this morning, received my cards about 10 AM, I have a few phone numbers to change yet, and it's a little after 9 PM. I look at it this way !! If our government and BIG business can't keep their files safe, what chance do us little people have !!!! Jim S

 

[Kragax]

I have actually had this happen twice.

 

[monophoto]

Each of us has options to consider, and has to choose the selection that makes the most sense on a personal basis. I choose to have a number of routine bills charged automatically to my credit card so that I get a statement at the end of the month. In addition, that approach means that I can routinely go to the credit card web site every morning to look at the list of new charges that came in the day before to verify that I recognize everything. On the other hand, I don't like automatic debits from my bank account because it's then hard to keep track of my actual balance.

In happens that the credit card company that I use offers a number of services to assist their customers when they detect a fraudulent charge:
1. They send me an e-mail listing the questionable charge along with other recent charges, and ask that i verify each one.
2. They send me an e-mail every time the amount of a charge exceeds a threshold that I set, and they also send me an e-mail if there is a telephone/web charge or a charge from outside the US.
3 They call me on the phone to alert me to suspicions charges that they capture.
4. They can issue a new card almost immediately. In the most recent instance, I spoke with them about the problem on Thursday night, and receive the new cards the following Saturday.
5. When they cancel a compromised card, they automatically transfer all legitimate existing charges to the new account so that billing is seamless. I don't have to pay down the outstanding balance in order to get a new card.
6. They can impose limits on use of old card that range from it being cancelled immediately to restricting it for use for a fixed period of time only in my immediate geographic location when the card is actually swiped in person (ie, no on-line or telephone transactions).

The point is that as consumers, we need to understand the services offered by the card company we are considering. Frankly, I could care less about interest rates (since I always pay my bill in full the day I receive it) or airline miles (that's a ripoff). But the services offered by the card company can make a difference. And like the man said, 'different strokes for different folks'.