Today I finally got around to doing one of those things I've always meant to do....I scanned all the credit cards in my wallet, DH's wallet, and the lock box (where we store cards we don't carry and seldom use). The reason for my sudden burst of common sense? We either lost a credit card, or it was stolen. Both, I think, actually. It probably fell out of my purse while I was removed another card. Anyway, we've had the card 18 months and never used it. It was one of those deals where you're pre-approved - just sign here and save 10% on everything you purchased today.

Right after Thanksgiving we got a call from Visa...just checking on the recent activity on your Target Visa card. Huh????? In three weeks the thieves charged over $750.00, which was pretty minor, considering the card had a $12,000 limit and zero balance when they started.

Of course, I went to check on all the other cards. Any others missing? Well....who knows? I have a whole handful of credit cards, most of which I almost never use!

So now I'm taking that piece of good advice someone e-mailed me about 10 years ago. I suggest you do the same. It's such a bummer to have this happen to you.

Carlene I hope that the card that was stolen is protected and you wont have to pay the price of the thief.

Carlene I hope that the card that was stolen is protected and you wont have to pay the price of the thief.

We didn't sign up for any special "protection" but they said we would not be charged for anything. An interesting note...I asked who takes the hit, the merchant or Visa, and they said it depends. If the merchant chooses not to ID or ask for a signature, they take the whole hit. If it's an internet purchase, Visa takes the loss.

It is VERY seldom that I get asked for my ID when I use a credit card. And I don't even have my signature on the back of any of them. I wish every merchant would check more carefully. I really appreciate it when people do.

This is very good advice! DH had his wallet stolen and thank goodness nothing charged up or anything, but it was a mess trying to remember what cards were in there!

For years I only had one credit card, VISA. I recently got a store card because I was buying something there and they promised me 20% off if I signed up for their card. I only used their card that one time and I pay off my VISA at the end of each month. Having only one credit card and one debit card has made my finances very simple and everyone accepts VISA.

Okay...so I'm not a Suze Orman fan...but I bought her product and--while getting everything IN the box was a pain--I'm glad it's done. http://tinyurl.com/wjtqq

It's also availabe at www.qvc.com Item # F8500

It not only has a place to store everything (except those old HUGE living trust documents that look like big city phone books), it has a list of everything that needs to be in there. My very organized sister saw mine, got jealous and got one, too.

Six years ago, my husband had a heart attack. Once the dust settled, I had to go home and find things. Whichever of us has the next emergency, the other needs only to grab the blue box. "It," or a copy of "it"--whatever that turns out to be...medical insurance, disability info, wills, retirement stuff, powers of attorney, social security stuff, credit card info, FICO scores, vehicle registrations, auto insurance, homeowners' stuff and more--is in there.

It also has a CD which pumps out boilerplate wills and medical power of attorney documents. We kittysat our daughter's cat and wouldn't give the cat back until she sat down and completed her will, POA and durable POA for medical care. (She IMPLIED kidnapping, but we ignored her.)

My Visa debit card is my right hand gal. On the back I've written "SEE ID". It never ceases to amaze me when people flip it over, read that, and hand it right back w/o asking for ID. And worse - when someone does ask for ID, they're so timid - like they expect it will make me mad.

Carlene, that's great advice.

Here's something else to watch out for. This isn't one of those "tell all your friends" email mass hysterias, this actually happened to me. We bought something at a store that will go unnamed. In retrospect we could remember making the purchase, but not thinking twice about it. Anyway - what happened was that the clerk swiped the card, and the transaction didn't go through. So he swiped the card at another reader and it went through just fine, end of story. Haha.

I'm really bad about following up with our account, I know more is coming in than going out, so I just don't pay any attention. We use online banking and every few weeks I'll scan the transactions just to make sure everything looks OK, taht refunds were credited, etc. Well I go to scan, and see a lot of unexplained transactions, and by "a lot of unexplained" I mean over $4k worth of porn subscriptions. Sites for pedophilia, beastiality, snuff, etc.

So I call our bank, and they launch an investigation.

Ends up, I guess this isn't all that uncommon (from what the bank told us) that people get jobs as store clerks to have access to customers/credit/debit cards. They bring in their own "bogus" scanners that do nothing other than record the information from the swiped card. So the customer goes to buy something, they swipe it once into their recorder, "Oops, doesn't look like that transaction went through" (they've just captured all of your information), "let's try it again on this reader, that one might be broken" (on the actual store scanner that will go through).

Our bank was awesome and they credit the money back, no questions asked, but I know there are people out there with online banking who are worse about checking it than me.

One lesson learned we took away from this is that we now limit the amt of money we keep in checking. On payday X amount is automatically transferred into savings (we've always done that), X amout is automatically transferred into what we call "liquid savings" - savings for purchases, taxes, vacations, whatever... not real savings, just a way to store up money we know we will spend eventually), and X is automatically transferred into investments, and the rest goes into our checking. Now I keep a max of 4k in checking unless I know I'm going to make a big purchase. I'll check every few weeks and if we're over that, I'll transfer to one of the other accounts.

I talk to my friends who keep 100% of their cash assets in their primary checking account, and I share my story with them, and usually they change their ways. We had ewnough to cover the fraudulent purchases, but if we hadn't, all of our bills are done on autopay, and that means everything from our cable bill to our mortgage could have bounced. That means lots of penalties, fees, and the potential for credit impact.

Wow, did you get your money back?

Wheetisn,

We are nowhere near as orgainzed as you are, but our automatic deposits go into one account, then we write a check from that account to the account from which we do our online banking. I don't know if it really makes a difference...but I feel like it provides an extra layer of something between incoming money and outgoing money.

For many years, I was the director of a social service agency. We accepted people from the criminal court system who were assigned community service (free labor). Every single one I supervised who was busted for credit card fraud was a restaurant server, without exception. We do not include the tip when we pay by CC in a restaurant. We pay the tip in cash, because they run your card, bring you the slip to sign, then go back and modify the transaction to add the tip. That's usually where/when the fraud occurs.

That's interesting Carlene. If we pay with card, we always line out the tip field. I don't know if that makes any difference or not. But I want to know more, because we eat out frequently. When you sign, you're also including a total amount. So if you've written "$30" and signed for "$30", how do they get more money? Is it still valid if someone writes over those amounts?

Omigawd! We have our financial ducks in a row in so far that we are mortgage free and that we have savings both within the framework of tax-sheltered retirement funds and other money. Please note that I haven't used U.S. terms when describing our money situation. This is because we live in Canada and things are a little bit different up here. We employ different letters of the alphabet to cover similar financial stuff with respect to issues of tax issues and tax-sheltered income.

This country also has a mandatory employee funded pension plan. It is called the Canadian Pension Plan, familiarly known as the CPP. Working folks have no choice but to pay into this along with contributing into their company pension plans. Where we get to shelter our taxes is by making voluntary contributions into our own personal retirement funds. It is expected that this money will make a difference in the life style between that of the pathetic pensioner and that of the high living old fart. Of course this tax free investment money does get taxed when the pensioner or his inheritor tries to pull it out at the other end.

I have all my financial ducks in a row but I drift in a vacant blondish state and I do leave a lot of money in my chequing account through carelessness and the sense that placing cash where it will garner small percents is simply not worth the bother of standing in a line up in order to transfer the stuff. I am lazy and I spent my youth during those times when money earned as much as 19%.

Of course I am now worried that my bloated chequing account could be hoovered out by virtue of my own carelessness.

I own a restaurant. Always make sure that there is something entered on each line. If you enter a tip on the tip line then fill in the total line, if you don't enter a tip and extend the total down to the last line then be sure to draw a wavy line through the tip line.

If you left the tip line blank and extended the total down to the last line your server could fill in a tip and change the total claiming it was an addition error on your part....it would be their word against yours. However, if there was something in the tip line to begin with and it appeared to be altered then the customer wins.

Carol

I own a restaurant. Always make sure that there is something entered on each line. If you enter a tip on the tip line then fill in the total line, if you don't enter a tip and extend the total down to the last line then be sure to draw a wavy line through the tip line.

If you left the tip line blank and extended the total down to the last line your server could fill in a tip and change the total claiming it was an addition error on your part....it would be their word against yours. However, if there was something in the tip line to begin with and it appeared to be altered then the customer wins.

Carol

Very good advice, Woodys.

This is what we and some of our friends do when we pay the bill by credit card: we might pay part, if not all, of the tip in cash. It is true that some of the tip might show up on the credit card bill but a separate share may be handed over to the good servers in the form of liquid cash. I am passionate that a fine server not be punished because the kitchen she or he serves is a lousy one. On the other hand I have no generosity towards a kitchen who chooses to harbour an idiot. I eat out a lot and I do work hard to make sure that the incompetents are ejected from the local eateries. I am one of those who bitch.

For folks who do eat out a lot in their own neighbourhoods the quality of the kitchen is always important but the personalities of the house servers are always as important.

When we are shelling out cash it is important that the food is good and that the service is, too.