Credit card fraud.

What a great idea - I think I'll call to lower the limit on a card I use only once a year. Then I'll use it only for online stuff.

Call me crazy, but my morning routine includes not just making coffee

- I call the automated service of my everyday cr. cd. co. and learn the balance and recent transactions. I don't believe in waiting for the billing to be done. If anything fraudulent going on, I'm going to catch it as fast as I can. It takes about one minute.

Hi Crazy!

I check mine online. Luckily nothing sinister showed up - Cahoot appears to have managed to block every attempt as far as I can see, bless them. I would have liked to have heard about the problem before it got to the stage when Tesco refused my card online though!!!

Pat

My primary credit card allows me to create unique numbers that will work only at the first place they're used. This is great for online use. Each online seller I deal with gets a different number from me, and each of those numbers can only be used at that seller's business. They never get my actual credit card number.

Karen E.

I use the virtual account numbers too. I have it set up for my Master Card and my Discover Card. Besides being dated for only a short time, they carry a very low monetary limit. If I want to buy something expensive using the virtual card, I need to call the company in advance and ask them to raise the limit temporarily.

Lucille

No, what if someone else gets hold of the list ? I have all my cards registered at my bank, lose one, lose all, a 1-800 number (internationally as well) fixes the problem and cancels the card.

Do you pay for this service? Can you call them any hour of day or night?

On my list, I have xxxx'd out part of the account numbers, which I know by heart. If some hotel maid digs around and finds the list, she still won't be able to do much with the info.

I did something similar when I had multiple PIN numbers and access codes to recall. For example, I had an account at Crocker Bank, so that information was filed in my pocket address book under "Betty" (as in Betty Crocker, though my Betty had no last name). I picked a local telephone exchange, and affixed the four-digit PIN to the end. Only I knew which phone numbers were real and which were codes; in fact, the number in my book for Betty actually rang through at a downtown business. The "office" phone number with my boss's first name on it was actually the code for the alarm system; the home number for him was actually his home number. (Well, duh, if I'm going to call him at the office, it's the number I give out two dozen times a day and I don't need to write it down.)

No charge, if I recall correctly, it came with my platinum Visa and yes, it's a 24 hour call. The only thing I have to remember to do is to call and give them the number if the new card when issued varies. I have found some do, others don't.

I see you are using bellsouth whereas I am in Canada, so perhaps services vary, I haven't really thought about it. They also have things like my passport number, for the same reason. My bank assured me this was an ok service, so I did it. Certainly when my passport was stolen I was glad as I had not made any note of the number elsewhere.

How did they or you think the perp got your info?

They didn`t say. I can only think that somewhere in the past I bought something online and someone at the place I bought whatever it was from misapropriated the details and used them for their own nefarious means. Lesson learned -I shall only ever use my special account with the very small credit limit another time, or PayPal, of course.

Luckily no harm seems to have been done - just thwarted attempts were made. However, I`m very annoyed that several attempts had been made as far back as April and no-one told me!

Pat

We've had issues where various chains had the entire customer credit card info for a certain time period were stolen. New cards eventually arrive - no damage to my account but a terrible PITA.

Worst thing was when someone tried to get a credit card and loans in my late FIL's name. And he was dead several years at that point. Both the bank and card company sent letters rejecting the accounts to my house. I called and let them know it was a good thing - he was quite dead at that point. Still don't know how the information was obtained. We shred nearly anything with our or the kids name and address on it.

Cheryl

With me, it was an inside job. The day after I moved out, before my new address hit the credit bureaus, the about-to-be-ex and a woman claiming to be me tried to buy a top of the line vehicle on credit. Thankfully, the salesman thought it a little unusual that a woman who was supposed to be intelligent enough to be a paralegal had to ask her husband "where do I work?", and gave them an excuse not to put the loan through on a Sunday. And, thankfully, I don't drive for medical reasons, so it struck my office manager as odd that I would be buying a vehicle, so when the employment confirmation phone call came in on Monday morning, she asked me what was going on.

But unfortunately, the government makes you put both Social Security Numbers on joint tax returns, so my ex had easy access to mine and it was quite easy for him to impersonate me. And since your SSN never changes (and it's a royal PITA to get it changed, even after identity theft) I have to remember to renew the fraud alert with all three credit bureaus on a regular basis the rest of my life.