Yesterday, I wrote about the new chip cards and the fact that, while providing some protection against fraud when used with the PIN, they will not stop credit card fraud.
Today, I wanted to follow up with some practical tips you can use to limit your risks related to credit card fraud.
1. Check your account balances regularly. Report any errors immediately.
2. Have more than one card. Keep an extra card as a spare. Don’t use the extra card, except perhaps on rare occasion to keep it active. If the credit card you normally use at the retail store gets blocked because there was a breach at one of the stores where you use it, you have another card available to use.
This is especially important if you are traveling. Imagine you are in another state and about to pay for your hotel bill, or a meal. Your card is declined. You discover that there was a breach at one of the stores you use it at back home. They are sending you a new card which you will receive within 10 days. But, what do you do now? You are stranded.
If you have another card available, the situation just got a lot easier. You may have been able to work something out with the bank to pay that bill. But it would be a lot of trouble, and if you still had a couple days before you returned home, you still have a lot of additional transactions to deal with.
3. Have a low limit on your card. That way, if someone steals your credit card number, the amount they can charge to your card is limited to a low value. Since the banks are transferring responsibility to merchants with the new chip cards, if the merchants don’t meet all the necessary requirements of compliance, it may be harder or take longer to get your money back. By having a lower limit on your card, the amount that can be charged is lower and the amount that you have at risk is limited.