What To Do When Credit Cards Are Stolen or Lost
Fri Mar 23, 2007 8:39PM EDT
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I lost my purse one night this week after my daughter's basketball game an hour from our home. By the time I tracked it down to a chain coffee shop, one of my credit cards had already been used a few times along the northeast corridor from New Jersey to Massachusetts.
The good news is my purse and all the other contents of my wallet are back in my hands. The bad news is I've spent lots of time doing damage control on my credit status, hoping a few full tanks of gas is the least someone will try to steal in my name.
I'm sharing this to pass on some tips about what to do if a credit card is lost or stolen and you're worried your credit may be compromised.
• Call to report the card missing. When I called my card's 800 customer service number, I found out about the gas station charges that were not made by me or my husband. So I closed the account and requested a new card. Then I immediately canceled the other credit card in my wallet, and my ATM card.
• Find out what you need to do to dispute fraudulent charges so you are not responsible for them. Review your next bill very carefully. My card company is sending me a letter outlining the disputed charges, and if I concur they are all listed, I'll sign it and send it back.
• Place a temporary, 90-day alert on your credit report to thwart thieves from opening accounts with your credit history. You can place the alert through any of the three major reporting bureaus, Experian, Eqiufax, or Transunion. Whichever one you choose will notify the other two of the alert status.
• Review your credit report. When you place a temporary alert on your credit report, you can view your credit report for free right away. This is a good time to remind you that we should be checking our credit reports with all three credit bureaus at least once every year. Each allows free reviews once every 12 months. Check out Chris Null's cautionary tale about what happened when he did his regularly scheduled credit check. You can request reports from all three bureaus on one web site, AnnualCreditReport.com. Check back to see if there is any suspicious activity, such as accounts opened that you didn't open, if you have a missing or stolen card.
I also canceled my ATM card even though there had been no activity on my bank account. The new one that I'll get will have my photo on it, a deterrent to any thieves who may pass off a debit card as their own.
That's my after-the-sad-tale advice. But here are some tips from the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Action, a consumer education and advocacy group based in San Francisco, for how to protect your cards and credit in case of theft.
• Carry only the cards you anticipate you'll need to use.
• Don't carry PIN numbers for your ATM or credit cards in your wallet or purse. Seems like a no-brainer, but you never know. Don't use birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, or phone numbers as your pin numbers. By the way, don't carry your Social Security number in your wallet or purse, either.
• Keep a record of your card numbers, expiration dates, and telephone numbers of each card company in a safe place (say, not in your wallet or purse) so you can report a theft quickly.
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Comments on What To Do When Credit Cards Are Stolen or Lost
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2 Posted by gwendolynguy@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:14PM EDT Report Abuse
it's almost impossible to stop fraud when the retailers only concern is the sale!
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3 Posted by dmcdizzle19 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:45PM EDT Report Abuse
The easiest way to keep track of the contents of your wallet is to photocopy the front and back of everything you carry and keep it (the photcopy) at home (in a safe place). This way, you have all of the account numbers and (usually) the costomer service phone numbers (on the back side of cards).
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4 Posted by almondjoy46 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:51PM EDT Report Abuse
I never have anyone ask for ID with a credit card. I used to work at Target and we always asked when the card said "see ID". You have to be so careful anymore--especially on-line!! My cousin had someone using her debit no. and she and her husband still had their cards. The only thing they could figure was someone got their number off of something they ordered on-line.
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5 Posted by donavittoria on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:46PM EDT Report Abuse
Making a photocopy of the front and back of all cards is a really good idea. I'm going to do that! Nowadays, there are so many ways that people can steal your identity, it's crazy! I used to do the whole "Ask for ID" on the back of my cards, and NO ONE ever asked for ID.
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6 Posted by jo5mora@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:37PM EDT Report Abuse
Do we all have to go back to caring cash? I just am fixing a mess from someone using my debt card number. How they got it off the internet I don't know-NEVER used it on the internet for anything! Thanks to someone living large off my account while spend my days, tracking charges, making phones, and filing reports. Shame on you!
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7 Posted by mjohnson3@ameritech.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:23PM EDT Report Abuse
Another problem if you are a senior citizen is that on your Medicare card is your social security number....this is something that needs to be changed..I recently had my purse stolen and altho I was able to stop all credit cards and did a report to the credit bureau....my only fear is my social security number being in someone elses hands....so far, so good, but it is still making me nervous....I have now decided to not carry my Medicare card wtih me.... Mary JOhnson....mjohnson3@ameritech.net
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8 Posted by mikeybbadd3 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:20PM EDT Report Abuse
when you photo copy a word of caution,,, some copy machines have a hard drive in them that retains your info, if the machine is 5 years old or NEWER the chance is it has the hard drive, only the color copier, not black and whites
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9 Posted by cjamesp2p on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:26PM EDT Report Abuse
My wife just recently had her purse stolen and as novices we went through a pretty brutal initiation. The purse contained her credit card, a bank card, her mostly used check book and her drivers license. We thought we covered everything by cancelling the cards and the un-used checks. The surprise came when we found our checking account significantly overdrawn. The crooks had taken other checks they had stolen and written checks payable to my wife. They then endorsed the checks forging my wifes name and presented them to be cashed at the drive-up of one of the local branches of our bank using my wife's ID and our account number. The bank cashed the checks and gave the cash to the crooks. When the checks were found to be either stopped or on closed accounts, they took the money to cover them from our account. The crooks did this over a three day time to the tune of $4800. Ouch! The bank did admit they should have caught that the ID presented was not the person presenting it (so much for checking) and refunded the money to our account. This was after the crooks tried it one more time and the bank retrieved my wife's id. The crooks sped away and the police seem un-interested in pursing. The moral to this long story is (1) If there is a chance that your ID and checking account info has ever been compromised, I suggest strongly that you close your account immediately. (2) Some people don't pay attention even if the id is presented. PS...The episode with our account happened on our way out of town to go skiing at spring break and wasn't resolved until we returned and we found out later that the crooks even spelled my wife's name wrong while endorsing one check.
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10 Posted by ray_parker2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:31PM EDT Report Abuse
place a photo of the person on the card,with a pass word, and matching finger print.
1 Posted by cmoyerrn@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse
Used a credit card at Best Buy. The back of my card says see ID. The check out girl never even looked at the back of the card. when I asked her if she wanted to see an ID she said they are no longer allowed to look at ID's at Best Buy. So much for consumer protection.