For the second time in just a few months, one of our cards has been compromised. This time, it was my husband’s American Express card. Apparently, a thief had made a duplicate card and tried to charge hundreds of dollars in Columbia–the country not the school. When my husband used the card the next day to buy lunch in Pennsylvania, an automatic alert went out, and the card company contacted him to verify that there was fraud happening. Fortunately, we were not liable for the charges, the account was swiftly closed and a new card issued.
One of the interesting techniques that the thieves use is that they try the card out with a small purchase of just a few dollars. If the charge goes through then they know the number is good and attempt to start a spending spree. I found this out when someone in Florida first spent a few dollars at a convenience store and then tried to spend more than $400 at a Target. In the case of the debit card, they stopped the larger purchase, but the smaller one was not taken off of my account.
More than once, I’ve talked about using cash as a means to be frugal. We tend to spend less money when we use cash, and a cash envelope system can really help us stay on budget. Visually seeing the money disappearing, keeps us honest about what exactly we are spending, and there is less of a chance of making those impulse purchases. Now, it seems, we have a new motivation to use more cash–that of stolen credit and debt cards, and the possibility of identity theft. Each time we use a credit card, we are taking a risk that the card could become compromised.
Of course, credit and debit cards can become compromised in other ways, too, such as through the credit card company database, or more likely a merchant’s database. No credit card? Less of a risk.
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