How do you safeguard your accounts?

[CaliKid]

....

I did found out that two credit card companies did not have this protection so I cancel those two accounts as being less secure. The two credit card companies actually allowed access in Hawaii without sending me a authentication code to my cell phone. i suggest people should find which financial institutions that they have...that do not send you the authentication code the next time when you are on vacation.
....

Why would you care if the credit card company has lax security? That's their problem not yours, no?

 

[RobbieB]

Yup, no problem for me. They just cancel the charges and send me a new card. As long as you have at least 2 cards, no problem.

 

[RockLife]

I am probably dense but not understanding the firewall account idea. Can you explain that in more detail? It sounds like a novel idea so I want to understand it.

Does this picture help? Everything on the right side of the line is pretty secure. The left side of the line is out in the world, less safe. Every account has its own long, complex password.

(Key: D=Deposit, W=Withdraw, X=Doesn't know about the other end, Lastpass is the password manager, with complex passwords for everything)

 

[atmsmshr]

So after my original post to this thread, DW gets a letter in the mail asking us to confirm the opening of a new line of credit for a furniture company. Both the furniture company and bank are legit. Called right away and shut down this pending line of credit. Bank said it looked like someone applied online, but did not know DW's SS number.

It took me 5 minutes of logging onto Equifax's website and putting a one year Alert on my credit, and less time for DW to Alert her credit account. Equifax notifies the other two credit agencies. An Alert is free, good for one year, and requires any agency to call us prior to opening a line of credit.

 

[harllee]

So after my original post to this thread, DW gets a letter in the mail asking us to confirm the opening of a new line of credit for a furniture company. Both the furniture company and bank are legit. Called right away and shut down this pending line of credit. Bank said it looked like someone applied online, but did not know DW's SS number.

It took me 5 minutes of logging onto Equifax's website and putting a one year Alert on my credit, and less time for DW to Alert her credit account. Equifax notifies the other two credit agencies. An Alert is free, good for one year, and requires any agency to call us prior to opening a line of credit.

You need to freeze your credit at all the credit agencies ASAP. Freezing credit is much better than an alert. Clark Howard has a good article on how to freeze.

 

[Chuckanut]

Why would you care if the credit card company has lax security? That's their problem not yours, no?

In general I agree, it's more the banks problem than their customer's though there can be issues of you are depending on a card to pay an important bill.

You might end up like a friend of mine who had his credit card compromised on his first day of a month long trip. Getting the replacement card sent to a hotel in another state or a foreign country is not easy. He finally convinced them to send the replacement card to an affiliated bank that he visited in person and checked him out. Fortunately, he was staying in one place long enough since it took about a week.

Here at home I had a CC number compromised by crooks in France. The bank detected the problem (I'm not in the habit of buying takeout pizza in Paris without the card) and cancelled it. But, this card also paid my monthly gym dues and, you guessed it, I missed the payment since the card was rejected. The gym promptly fined me about $30 as per their contract and would not budge an inch.

 

[sengsational]

Why would you care if the credit card company has lax security? That's their problem not yours, no?

It's really not either. Not the card holder, they get made whole. Not the credit card company, they just charge the merchants a higher fee to cover the card holder. Not the merchant, they raise their prices so they can pay the higher fee. Who then pays for CC fraud? We all do. Those of us who use cards pay less of it (because we get kickbacks). Those who pay the most are cash customers, since they pay prices that are set to cover credit card fees, but don't get the kickbacks. The CC companies don't have a huge incentive to eliminate fraud because they pass on the costs. The biggest price I pay is the inconvenience of having to lay out my travel destinations and occasionally still have problems. That's why I have a whole was of cards to fall back on.

 

[braumeister]

You might end up like a friend of mine who had his credit card compromised on his first day of a month long trip. Getting the replacement card sent to a hotel in another state or a foreign country is not easy. He finally convinced them to send the replacement card to an affiliated bank that he visited in person and checked him out. Fortunately, he was staying in one place long enough since it took about a week.

I know that happens, but it's highly variable. When it happened to my debit card while in Scotland, I spent ten minutes on the phone with Schwab and they were willing to overnight a new card to the London hotel where I was going to be in two days. Phone call on Friday, new card in hand on Monday. Schwab's customer service was magnificent in that situation.

 

[Sunset]

You need to freeze your credit at all the credit agencies ASAP. Freezing credit is much better than an alert. Clark Howard has a good article on how to freeze.

++++
Freeze is the way to go.
Easy, free, free to thaw, free to re-freeze. Stops them dead.

 

[rk911]

++++
Freeze is the way to go.
Easy, free, free to thaw, free to re-freeze. Stops them dead.

absotively!