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Just a heads up guys, double check your bank statements and credit cards regularly, my wife and I had someone use our debit card info to buy about $550 worth of stuff online but we caught them before anything was deliverd. Tis the season.

Thanks for the reminder...

Some additional suggestions to readers..
-- Debit cards are not recommended. If you can qualify for a credit card, you should be using one and paying it off every month. Debit cards are YOUR money at risk of loss (even if you get it back, how many checks bounced or bills were paid late while you were waiting for the refund?), credit cards are THEIR money at risk of loss.

-- Most banks will enable you to sign up online and be notified via text message of any CC transactions. I recommend you use this security feature. I set my notification limit at $0.01 (every transaction sends me a text message). One thing BG's do to test a card number is charge something small. Less than $1.00. If the charge is successful, they're off to the races until the bank catches them. If my phone doesn't "alert" before I'm out of the store, I'm wondering why not. It's not as annoying as you might think and it works.

-- Debit cards are not recommended. If you can qualify for a credit card, you should be using one and paying it off every month. Debit cards are YOUR money at risk of loss (even if you get it back, how many checks bounced or bills were paid late while you were waiting for the refund?), credit cards are THEIR money at risk of loss.

Although you are correct in saying debit cards are YOUR money, I disagree with your conclusion of using credit cards.

The same safeties exist for using the credit feature of the debit card as the credit card (VISA,MC logo debit cards). True, your money is "at risk", but no more than the credit card. I have had my debit card stolen twice and funds used twice. In both instances, San Antonio Federal Credit Union has returned every cent, same day, and was available to use same day. Had to get a new card, but c'est la vie.

I don't use credit and don't borrow money. I am a Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid drinking, cash only guy. I have an account I use for shopping only and never have to worry about late fees, term changes, annual fees,etc.

Just my 2cents.

I keep a second free checking account at a different bank than my regular bank strictly for online purchases and recurring debits (Netflix for example). I have Paypal connected to the account and keep just enough in it to cover purchases....It makes it really easy to spot fraudulent charges and protects my regular account from exposure...

I had to move the account from Wells Fargo to Amegy when Wells Fargo did away with their free, no caveats, checking...

Richard

+1 for debit/credit card alerts. I've had 2 fraudulant charges to both and within seconds of receiving the alerts had the bank on the phone - the attempted charges were still "pending".

Funny (sort of) the one charge was someone opening a credit monitoring account with Experian using my credit card. Bank got them on the phone too and got everything cancelled and new cards within the week.

I had fraudulent charges using my debit card about 11 months ago. My wife had it happen about 5 months ago. Since then, we keep a very close eye on our accounts.

Leftyonly has a good idea that I am considering.

I had it happen to me. Two charges at a gas station I've never been to on the same day. Immediately canceled the card and got a new one.

The thing you have to watch out for is card skimmers. They can be extremely well hidden, and sometimes at gas stations, in the machine itself (as 99% use the generic key which bad guys have gotten a hold of).

my wife and i use a small town bank and have been with them for 20 years. we recently got a call from the bank and said they had denied a transaction. my wife asked about the transaction and the bank said someone in london was trying to charge 1600 dollars to her card. I am not fond of banks in particular however ours does a real good job of keeping an eye out for something suspicious.

jayinsat wrote:Although you are correct in saying debit cards are YOUR money, I disagree with your conclusion of using credit cards.

The same safeties exist for using the credit feature of the debit card as the credit card (VISA,MC logo debit cards). True, your money is "at risk", but no more than the credit card. I have had my debit card stolen twice and funds used twice. In both instances, San Antonio Federal Credit Union has returned every cent, same day, and was available to use same day. Had to get a new card, but c'est la vie.

I don't use credit and don't borrow money. I am a Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid drinking, cash only guy. I have an account I use for shopping only and never have to worry about late fees, term changes, annual fees,etc.

Just my 2cents.

I drink the same Kool-Aid brother! Thanks to Dave Ramsey's ideas we are completely debt free (aside from the house). I hope I will never have to have a credit card in my life again.

We do a fair amount of online shopping. We use credit cards for them, but the credit card system has a program which generates one time use card numbers for each tranaction. So far that has proven to be quite succesful. We did get hit by an attempted fraudulent charge from London, but the CC company caught it before it went through. I suspect after talking with their fraud monitoring people that our card number had been accessed in one of the large hacking incidents that has happened to merchants of the last couple of years. This then put our card number on a computerized watch list and it prempted the damage. It did result in a new card being issued, which is a hassle in and of itself.

knotquiteawake wrote:

jayinsat wrote:Although you are correct in saying debit cards are YOUR money, I disagree with your conclusion of using credit cards.

The same safeties exist for using the credit feature of the debit card as the credit card (VISA,MC logo debit cards). True, your money is "at risk", but no more than the credit card. I have had my debit card stolen twice and funds used twice. In both instances, San Antonio Federal Credit Union has returned every cent, same day, and was available to use same day. Had to get a new card, but c'est la vie.

I don't use credit and don't borrow money. I am a Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid drinking, cash only guy. I have an account I use for shopping only and never have to worry about late fees, term changes, annual fees,etc.

Just my 2cents.

I drink the same Kool-Aid brother! Thanks to Dave Ramsey's ideas we are completely debt free (aside from the house). I hope I will never have to have a credit card in my life again.

Same here brother. Been debt free for 5 years. The house is almost paid for too. I actually have money and Christmas brings no stress and a lot of joy through giving.

knotquiteawake wrote:

jayinsat wrote:Although you are correct in saying debit cards are YOUR money, I disagree with your conclusion of using credit cards.

The same safeties exist for using the credit feature of the debit card as the credit card (VISA,MC logo debit cards). True, your money is "at risk", but no more than the credit card. I have had my debit card stolen twice and funds used twice. In both instances, San Antonio Federal Credit Union has returned every cent, same day, and was available to use same day. Had to get a new card, but c'est la vie.

I don't use credit and don't borrow money. I am a Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid drinking, cash only guy. I have an account I use for shopping only and never have to worry about late fees, term changes, annual fees,etc.

Just my 2cents.

I drink the same Kool-Aid brother! Thanks to Dave Ramsey's ideas we are completely debt free (aside from the house). I hope I will never have to have a credit card in my life again.

I'm a huge Ramsey advocate, but nowadays, you need a credit card to do anything. I have one I use for United Airlines miles...I use it for all my monthly expenses, and then pay it off at the end of the month.

Without a credit card, how do you reserve hotel rooms? Buy plane tickets? I won't use Debit Cards because of the ridiculous hold they put on the card when you check in...

My credit card was hit with a fraudulent charge this week. One $325 and a small two-cent charge to some on-line companies. The credit card company caught both charges and called me. Now I have a new card. Not an enjoyable experience at all.

pbwalker wrote:

knotquiteawake wrote:

jayinsat wrote:Although you are correct in saying debit cards are YOUR money, I disagree with your conclusion of using credit cards.

The same safeties exist for using the credit feature of the debit card as the credit card (VISA,MC logo debit cards). True, your money is "at risk", but no more than the credit card. I have had my debit card stolen twice and funds used twice. In both instances, San Antonio Federal Credit Union has returned every cent, same day, and was available to use same day. Had to get a new card, but c'est la vie.

I don't use credit and don't borrow money. I am a Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid drinking, cash only guy. I have an account I use for shopping only and never have to worry about late fees, term changes, annual fees,etc.

Just my 2cents.

I drink the same Kool-Aid brother! Thanks to Dave Ramsey's ideas we are completely debt free (aside from the house). I hope I will never have to have a credit card in my life again.

All my debit cards can be run as credit. Its never been an issue. In the past a "debit card" used to be limited in where/how it could be run but now they just get run as a credit card more often anyways.

I'm a huge Ramsey advocate, but nowadays, you need a credit card to do anything. I have one I use for United Airlines miles...I use it for all my monthly expenses, and then pay it off at the end of the month.

Without a credit card, how do you reserve hotel rooms? Buy plane tickets? I won't use Debit Cards because of the ridiculous hold they put on the card when you check in...

Without a credit card, how do you reserve hotel rooms? Buy plane tickets? I won't use Debit Cards because of the ridiculous hold they put on the card when you check in...

I do it all the time! I usually reserve my hotel rooms through expedia or something like that. I buy my plane tickets through Southwest Airlines. I rent my cars using rental companies that accept debit cards. I do all this with a debit card only and never have problems.

As far as the holds go, whats the difference between a debit card linked to an account with $10,000 deposited and a credit card with a $10,000 limit? You don't have to make a payment on the debit card! Visa and Mastercard insures the transaction just the same on a Debit run as credit as a credit card. The holds drop off after a few days. It's not a problem for me because, since I don't have any payments, I don't worry about not having any cash to cover the holds

Don't accept the lies the credit card companies feed you to keep you beholden to them.