It is a well-known fact that the credit cards that we use every now and then for paying off the bills or purchasing something are always at a risk for theft. But stopping the use of your cards is not a practical solution, right? So what you can do is to become more cautious and protective while using your credit cards. In this post, I will share some effective tips to help you within protecting your credit cards.
- Keep your credit cards safe – Make sure that your cards are kept in a purse or wallet and closely attached to your body so that they can’t be snatched away easily. If you are shopping in a crowded area use a small purse and keep only those one or two cards that you’ll be using on that day. Avoid taking all the cards whenever you go out of the house. Make sure that you are taking back your credit card before leaving the store.
- Avoid signing blank credit card receipts – This is important to avoid credit card frauds. Verify the amount on the card before signing the receipt. If you get a receipt that has blank spaces on it put $0 or draw a line through it before signing the receipt. Or else, the cashier gets a chance to put any amount in that blank space and send that purchase to your credit card company.
- Shred any spare documents that have your credit card number on them – Most often we tend to toss away the billing statements directly into the trash. This is very risky as scammers can easily get your credit card number. Make sure that you tear it up, and also consider putting the shredded pieces in different trash cans to ensure added security.
- Be safe while using your credit card online – Don’t give away your credit card information to any sites without checking their safety and reliability issues. Avoid clicking on email links pretending to be your credit card company, bank, or any other business that uses your personal information. Most often these links turn out to be phishing scams and the scammers want you to log in to their fake website to get all your personal information. Make sure that you are providing the credit card information only on those sites that you consider to be legitimate and reliable enough. To check if a website is secured or not look for the ‘lock’ sign in the lower right corner of your internet browser.
- Change your passwords frequently – One of the popular tricks to hack your account is a brute force attack which usually exploits weak passwords. Hence, it is important to choose a password consisting of letters as well as numerical. Also, make sure that you change the password at a regular interval.
- Report stolen credit cards immediately – In case you lose your credit card, or it is stolen, inform the authority as soon as possible. Always keep the number of your credit card company’s customer service with you.
Well, these are some of the handy tips that may save you from a credit card scam. Keep them in mind while using your credit cards.
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