I HATE THIEVES!

[Wandering Sagebrush]

GAAAAAAH!!! Just found out that our Costco Visa cards were compromised! The attempted use was rejected, but the bags had both of the card numbers. It appears that a database somewhere has been hacked. Looks like about 10 days to get the replacement cards.

GAAAAAAH!!!

 

[Tuff Guy 62]

That's the pits Steve.

I'll have to keep an eye out on our account. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

 

[MarkBC]

That stinks.
It's happened to me at least 3 times -- every time caught by the Visa folks before I noticed it. (several other times the algorithms thought there were suspicious charges, but they were me)
Waiting for the replacement card was the main hassle, for me.

 

[Squatch]

Mama Squatch just went through similar. Not fun. We've been through it a few times. Boiling oil for the perps comes to mind!

What cracks me up is the daily BS about watching what you put in the trash. What a crock. Folks aren't going through anybody's trash. The retailers and Card handling companies are losing our info on a daily basis. Best defense is Cash!

 

[Stalking Light]

Your card number was probably on sale online somewhere. Just find the link and buy someone else's.

Not sure how things are now but I used to be involved in calling card validation and the lifetime of a stolen card was about 4 hours and in those days they would rack up $30+ K in charges during that time. Card companies have much better algorithms for detecting fraud these days.

I had someone order a Dell laptop once on one of my cards and I tracked down where it was to be delivered and let both Dell and my card company know but they wanted me to contact law enforcement at the delivery location. I tried that and they didn't seem interested either. I stopped it before it could be shipped but even if it had been Dell would just have had to eat the charge and factor it into their pricing.

 

[ntsqd]

Ran into that same attitude with one of the now out of business big box co.'s when they ventured into online sales. Wasn't worth their time even though part of the order hadn't yet shipped. The crook oopsied and had the camera bag sent to me, which is how I found out about it. They then sent in a ship-to address correction and I've no idea where the Nikon body & lenses went, but it wasn't to me.

 

[pvstoy]

Go online for your card accounts. There you can set a minimum limit dollar amount say $9.00, any time the card is used for $9.00 or more I get a email. There are other things you can set up and it will notify you by email. I know when my gal is done shopping and I get a email I know she is on her way home.

 

[Old Crow]

On two different occasions we've had our credit card become useless while traveling. That meant our auto-pay accounts would fail on next attempt to pay our monthly bills.

On both occasions we were more than 1000 miles from home. And of course that means we were more than 1000 miles from the replacement card.

Fortunately, we had another credit card. Unfortunately, the seemingly-simple act of changing a credit card wasn't as easy as it should be. That's the day we learned, for example, that one of our auto-pay systems doesn't work with our laptop's operating system and browser for a credit-card change. And we never did figure out how to change another one of them online.

So if you take longer trips and have auto-pay accounts being paid by credit card, you may want to:

- Have at least one other active credit card available.

- Before leaving, make a list of your auto-pay accounts with the info you'll need to get into your online accounts (passwords, security questions, etc.) plus phone numbers and any procedures you may need to get to the customer service agent for your auto-pay accounts. And of course protect your password and security info, perhaps with a password-protected file on your laptop and emergency-info thumb drive. And figure out how you're going to get your info if your laptop is stolen or fails. (We have a paper copy in a safe place).

- If you have concerns about the usability or the security of the online system or the security of your link to it, you may want to call customer service instead (and that of course has its own challenges).

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

OC, that is exactly what we do, less the online banking. Two paper lists of auto pay travel with us. One in the truck,one in the RV.