Cal Club Autocross Forums

Friday I received phone calls and e-mails about potential fraudulent use of my debit card. I followed the bank's instructions, called their special department that handles it, confirmed my last three transactions - and reviewed my account activity for the past month as well. They said my debit card was blocked, but they removed the block having made contact.

I tried using the card last night and it was denied.

So I called in again, not too happy about it. This time they said there has been a third-party notification of a data breach. They don't have the information yet on where the breach originated, and after going to my bank and replacing my debit card, I realized this isn't specific to my bank.

I highly recommend keeping a close eye on your account for fraudulent activity - NOT on your cell phone! - and calling your bank to find out if they're aware of any breach that might affect their customers.

Be diligent people. I'm in sub-prime auto finance, and I see the effects of Identity Theft every week. You *don't* want to have it happen to you. By the way, my bank is B of A... but like I said, this was an outside breach, so it could easily involve other banks and cards.

Mike

Thanks for the heads up Mike!
Glad you figured it out early.

My account is breached every month by my mortgage company

My wife had the same concern with her partners account at Disney.

Mike my W.F. Visa was fraudulently used 2 months ago.........with my card in my wallet! How they got my number (charges were made in Minnesota), I don't know. Luckily W.F. caught it the day of (and I too noticed a suspicious small charge of $25). I do have ID Theft Protection (http://www.trustedid.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and also I always login to all my accounts every DAY to check for any suspicious charges as well as monitor my credit reports. So far so good. Be vigilant people.

I just got a letter from AmEx (our corporate card) saying that my account info may have been breached, and to be on the lookout for fraudulent charges. At least my SS # isn't part of the info. Scary stuff, and a real headache to deal with if charges are actually made.

I'm going to be very interested to see the public disclosure of where the breach occurred. It isn't public yet, but when it becomes so I think a number of people will have a newfound appreciation for carefully reviewing their bank and credit card statements.

Mike

Breaches are bad... But the waiter you handed your card to is a more likely hazard.

Steve Ekstrand wrote:Breaches are bad... But the waiter you handed your card to is a more likely hazard.

Flying sharks are awesome! Especially when they're snacking on those corrupt waiters...

Mike Simanyi wrote:Flying sharks are awesome! Especially when they're snacking on those corrupt waiters...

Know what would make it awesomer? Lasers.

I had my debit card # stolen a while back by an employee at a cell phone store. After that, I pretty much stopped using it. Credit card companies usually offer better fraud protection and can float charges for longer than debit cards. Not mention, credit cards offer better benefits (cash back, warranty extensions, etc.). Just treat your credit card like your debit card and you'll never have to worry about going overboard on charges either.

Daniel Yeung wrote:I had my debit card # stolen a while back by an employee at a cell phone store. After that, I pretty much stopped using it. Credit card companies usually offer better fraud protection and can float charges for longer than debit cards. Not mention, credit cards offer better benefits (cash back, warranty extensions, etc.). Just treat your credit card like your debit card and you'll never have to worry about going overboard on charges either.

+1

Another benefit of many credit cards: virtual card numbers. These are temporary card numbers you can use to make online payments. They're only valid for the current month, so if the information is stolen, it's almost guaranteed to be expired.

I use this feature for most of my online payments.

Mike

You want to be careful when getting the rewards cards, you lose all your consumer protection because they are classified as Business Credit cards and therefore exempt from the new Consumer protection regulations recently passed. The banks are pushing these cards instead of the regular ones. One problem though, many business are now wise to these cards and will charge a surcharge or not accept them, because they carry higher costs for business because they are not part of the negotiated rate we have with processors and the CC companies charge us more for processing those cards to pay for the extra mileage rewards you get. Also the cards issued by non bank entities, such as Amazon, etc offer you absolutely no protection, try getting money back on fraudulent charges from Amazon.

I think Amazon may be a bad example. They offer two different cards. One is an Amazon Visa card, issued by Visa and carrying all the traits of a standard Visa card. The other is the Amazon store card, which you can only use on Amazon.com, and are not liable for any fraudulent use of your card.

I never had an issue with using my REI Visa with 1% cash back. The only issue I have had with a "rewards" card is because the card was from American Express. You are correct that many businesses do not accept American Express because they charge higher commissions and fees.

I bet if you checked with your bank you will find the new rewards cards, like Slate from Chase are commercial cards now not consumer cards.

This site has good info on Credit Cards

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card- ... s-1282.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The main protection I'm concerned about is fraud. Would I be correct in assuming that all credit cards still offer fraud protection? I reviewed the C/C site and could find nothing to dispute this.

George Schilling wrote:The main protection I'm concerned about is fraud. Would I be correct in assuming that all credit cards still offer fraud protection? I reviewed the C/C site and could find nothing to dispute this.

a recent datapoint: my amex hhonors rewards card was compromised. they only had a day before i noticed weird pending charges, but still managed to book a flight, insure it, and order some magazines online. called amex, canceled the card (it was still in my possession), initiated a fraud investigation, and all charges were immediately credited back (removed). my dealings in the past for similar situations mirrored this experience. fwiw, ymmv, etc.

Rewards credit cards are processed by merchant service companies as "Non-qualifying" which means they do not qualify for the negotiated rate between the merchant and the merchant service. The merchant typically pays from 1.5 to 2.5% more in transaction fees when a customer uses that card. The merchant you do business with is paying for the rewards you are accruing with your card. Also, merchant agreements do not allow merchants to charge extra for these non-qualifying cards which causes the merchant to charge all credit card users extra to cover these increased fees. In most cases the merchant does not know the card is a non-qualifying card until the monthly statement.

Ultimately you as a credit card user pay more for products and services because of these rewards cards. The rewards you are getting are not free, you and all the other credit card users are paying for them, often at rates higher then if you just purchased the "free' rewards item on the open market. Its another way the credit card companies deceive their customers.

Just got a call from ExxonMobil, that they were issuing me a "new" gas card because my current one was cancelled due to a "data breach" on their end. So keep a look out on your credit card statements.