Tim wrote:
- show quoted text -
The banks and credit card companies have become pretty good at tracking
your spending habits and locations. Last year at about this time I
decided to drive to SC to spend Christmas with my son. When I arrived
at the hotel and tried to pay for the stay with a card, I got a request
to contact the issuer. Once they confirmed it was really me, the
payment was processed. I was told that it is a good idea to call the
issuers of debit and credit cards and let them know you will be
traveling and using the cards in locations they are not normally used.
........,
Yep, I had that happen to me a coue years ago while in Tennessee. I made
a size able purchase ms the card was denied. I was really embarrassed but
the sales guy was really helpful and asked me if I notified my card co
that I was traveling, which i hadn't.

I called and got it lined out and all was well.
Since then I do call ahead and tell when I'll leave, where going and
approx return. It's a good thing.


I do on my debit card. Amex says do not need to call.

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 11:24:36 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 12/8/2015 11:03 AM, amdx wrote:
On 12/8/2015 8:20 AM, John H. wrote:
So yesterday evening I get a call from my bank asking about my credit
card usage. Not
trusting the caller, I called the bank. Sure enough, my credit card
information had
been used at a Shell station in California for a $110 purchase. The
actual card was
still in my billfold, so somehow they got the number.

How? I don't know. But the card is cancelled. Right when I'm about to
order Christmas
presents. Pain in the ass. Luckily, the bank will get me a new card in
two days.

So...watch yourself.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


When my daughter was off at college we had fraud on our card twice.
The first time about a Red Roof stay, $100 of stuff at a CVS and a
$200 steak dinner.
The second time, a bunch of around $50 charges of Apple tunes.
Replaced the card both times.
There seemed to be a lot of that happening around the college town,
but the fraudulent charges happened in a different city.

This fraud crap is costing all of us, in the way of higher cost goods.
I hope the new cards they are coming out with help contain fraud.

Mikek



I've been getting replacement cards with the new "chip" embedded in
them. So far though, I have not found any place that uses them yet.
They still swipe the magnetic strip.


Our local Walmart has converted, not many others however.

On Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 11:24:40 AM UTC-5, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 12/8/2015 11:03 AM, amdx wrote:
On 12/8/2015 8:20 AM, John H. wrote:
So yesterday evening I get a call from my bank asking about my credit
card usage. Not
trusting the caller, I called the bank. Sure enough, my credit card
information had
been used at a Shell station in California for a $110 purchase. The
actual card was
still in my billfold, so somehow they got the number.

How? I don't know. But the card is cancelled. Right when I'm about to
order Christmas
presents. Pain in the ass. Luckily, the bank will get me a new card in
two days.

So...watch yourself.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


When my daughter was off at college we had fraud on our card twice.
The first time about a Red Roof stay, $100 of stuff at a CVS and a
$200 steak dinner.
The second time, a bunch of around $50 charges of Apple tunes.
Replaced the card both times.
There seemed to be a lot of that happening around the college town,
but the fraudulent charges happened in a different city.

This fraud crap is costing all of us, in the way of higher cost goods.
I hope the new cards they are coming out with help contain fraud.

Mikek



I've been getting replacement cards with the new "chip" embedded in
them. So far though, I have not found any place that uses them yet.
They still swipe the magnetic strip.

I've used my chip at Lowes a couple of times. It may be more secure, but it's slower and a bit of a PITA as compared to just swiping.

On 12/8/2015 10:03 AM, True North wrote:
Happened to me last year at this time. Someone was using my debit card out in the western US.
At that time I was seldom using it except at ATMs but did buy gas on the edge of town then the local news reported that a number of similar victims had come to light around the same time. Took just over a week for the bank to reimburse my $ 400 something dollars.

I assume you are replying to John's post. Do they have any decent news
readers for blackberrys?
Debit cards aren't the safest. You're lucky to get your money back.

wrote:
On Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 11:24:40 AM UTC-5, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 12/8/2015 11:03 AM, amdx wrote:
On 12/8/2015 8:20 AM, John H. wrote:
So yesterday evening I get a call from my bank asking about my credit
card usage. Not
trusting the caller, I called the bank. Sure enough, my credit card
information had
been used at a Shell station in California for a $110 purchase. The
actual card was
still in my billfold, so somehow they got the number.

How? I don't know. But the card is cancelled. Right when I'm about to
order Christmas
presents. Pain in the ass. Luckily, the bank will get me a new card in
two days.

So...watch yourself.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


When my daughter was off at college we had fraud on our card twice.
The first time about a Red Roof stay, $100 of stuff at a CVS and a
$200 steak dinner.
The second time, a bunch of around $50 charges of Apple tunes.
Replaced the card both times.
There seemed to be a lot of that happening around the college town,
but the fraudulent charges happened in a different city.

This fraud crap is costing all of us, in the way of higher cost goods.
I hope the new cards they are coming out with help contain fraud.

Mikek



I've been getting replacement cards with the new "chip" embedded in
them. So far though, I have not found any place that uses them yet.
They still swipe the magnetic strip.

I've used my chip at Lowes a couple of times. It may be more secure, but
it's slower and a bit of a PITA as compared to just swiping.


I like the chip cards. Overseas is all you use. Waiter brings a reader to
the table, and you never lose sig of the card. They should not be as slow
as they are here.

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 07:03:48 -0800 (PST), True North
wrote:

Happened to me last year at this time. Someone was using my debit card out in the western US.
At that time I was seldom using it except at ATMs but did buy gas on the edge of town then the local news reported that a number of similar victims had come to light around the same time. Took just over a week for the bank to reimburse my $ 400 something dollars.

These are usually "card skimmers". They install a device on a gas pump
or other reader that skims your card and traps the data.

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 10:08:15 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 12/8/2015 9:20 AM, John H. wrote:
So yesterday evening I get a call from my bank asking about my credit card usage. Not
trusting the caller, I called the bank. Sure enough, my credit card information had
been used at a Shell station in California for a $110 purchase. The actual card was
still in my billfold, so somehow they got the number.

How? I don't know. But the card is cancelled. Right when I'm about to order Christmas
presents. Pain in the ass. Luckily, the bank will get me a new card in two days.

So...watch yourself.

I received a call once regarding my Discover card. It had been used
that morning to buy over $5k worth of "stuff" in West Palm Beach,
Florida. I was at my house in MA at the time.

Discover was good. They voided the charges made, canceled and replaced
the card.

I haven't used it since though.

My wife seems to get her cards compromised a lot. So far I am OK.
They have her on high security and if she does anything unusual, the
charge will bounce if she hasn't called them first. She certainly has
to call before we go out of town.
I do have the setting where I get an Email for any "card not present"
charges.

On Tue, 08 Dec 2015 10:27:57 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 10:13:06 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 12/8/2015 10:03 AM, True North wrote:

Happened to me last year at this time. Someone was using my debit card out in the western US.
At that time I was seldom using it except at ATMs but did buy gas on the edge of town then the local news reported that a number of similar victims had come to light around the same time. Took just over a week for the bank to reimburse my $ 400 something dollars.


I've read that the card scanners used at gas pumps, ATM's and other
locations are replaced with some jerk's scanner that looks like it's the
original. His collects all your card info.


A couple weeks before Christmas is *not* a good time for this to happen.

I tried, this morning, to go to my statement at the bank's site to see if I could
figure out where this may have happened. But, everything and anything to do with that
card has been removed from my account.

I was really surprised that the bank, Pentagon Federal, would have caught that
charge. Perhaps their computers are programmed to compare usage times and realized I
couldn't have used the card here and in California only a couple hours later.

It is handy to have more than one card. I have several and I use them
for different things so it is a little easier to figure out how one
got compromised and so I am not a vagrant if one is.

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 08:03:39 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

- show quoted text -
The banks and credit card companies have become pretty good at tracking
your spending habits and locations. Last year at about this time I
decided to drive to SC to spend Christmas with my son. When I arrived
at the hotel and tried to pay for the stay with a card, I got a request
to contact the issuer. Once they confirmed it was really me, the
payment was processed. I was told that it is a good idea to call the
issuers of debit and credit cards and let them know you will be
traveling and using the cards in locations they are not normally used.
........,
Yep, I had that happen to me a coue years ago while in Tennessee. I made a size able purchase ms the card was denied. I was really embarrassed but the sales guy was really helpful and asked me if I notified my card co that I was traveling, which i hadn't.

I called and got it lined out and all was well.
Since then I do call ahead and tell when I'll leave, where going and approx return. It's a good thing.

The only time I ever got my card put on hold was after I did a "card
not present" in a place where I had just used the card. It was my
fault. I did use the card to rent the boat and when I turned the boat
in I bought a T shirt but my wallet was still in the car. I knew my
number and all the other stuff so she just punched it in.

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 11:24:36 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


I've been getting replacement cards with the new "chip" embedded in
them. So far though, I have not found any place that uses them yet.
They still swipe the magnetic strip.


I have a couple of chip cards. A few merchants are using the chip
(insert the card in a slot and leave it there). None are using the
password feature yet tho.

In New Zealand they just wave their card at the terminal and enter a
password.