9 Reminders about Your Credit Cards During the Holiday Shopping Craze

Credit cards are almost as common to consumers’ wallets as their driver’s licenses but with the comfortableness one achieves when used to having something with us all the time, it can get a bit easy to become lazy. When you get lazy about things, your risk for theft and fraud go up exponentially.
 

Here are 9 things you should remember about your credit cards to keep you and your credit cards and your finances safe.
 

1. Before heading out to the malls, go though your wallet and make sure your credit cards have not expired. You may also want to jot down the account information for the cards you carry, including your account numbers, expiration dates and the contact information for each of the card companies in the event your wallet gets stolen while you are out.
2. Do not bring cards with you that you do not plan to use. In the event your wallet is stolen, you will avoid some of the extra hassles of more than one stolen credit card. This can also help with preventing overspending.
3. If you must give your credit card to a clerk instead of swiping the card yourself, make sure to stay focused to ensure you get your credit card back and that you put it away promptly. If not, especially now during the busy shopping season, you are likely to leave it behind or worse – drop it and have it stolen.
4. If the salesperson hands you an incorrect or blank receipt, make sure you never sign it until the receipt has been corrected or you may find yourself responsible for charges you did not make. This is especially important when you are dining out at a restaurant and you opt to leave a cash tip. Draw a line through any space on a receipt that has a blank so no one can come back and fill in the blanks at your expense.
5. If shopping over the phone, never give your credit card number out to anyone unless you are the person who initiated the phone call. This is especially important if you receive a call back from a company. Ask politely if you can return the call in a few minutes and get the phone number before giving out any personal information, financial or otherwise. With just a few simple bits of information, a scam artist can take advantage of you in no time at all.
6. After shopping, take out your wallet and check that all of your credit cards and other personal identification is safe and sound. If not, file a report immediately with your credit card companies and your local police. In addition to the telephone contact, report the loss in writing to your credit card company to help protect yourself.
7. Do not throw away any of your receipts. You may need them to return or exchange gifts you have purchased. You will also need them to reconcile your credit card statement at the end of the billing cycle.
8. When you credit card statement comes in, you need to be sure you open and review the statement and the charges right away. Check your receipts against the statement and make sure it all adds up and there are no instances of fraud. If anything is not accurate, you need to contact your credit card company immediately and report the dispute then follow the protocol for handling the disputes.
9. If you have several credit cards that may be making your payments a bit difficult during the holiday season, you may want to consider transferring and consolidating your accounts to a new card with lower interest rates that what you are currently receiving. Word of warning: if you do not have an excellent credit score, you may find it more difficult right now to get approved for a new credit card.

Related Posts:

• Holiday Shopping Tips With Credit Cards - With the major holidays quickly approaching, I thought it might be a good idea to review a few tips about budgeting your...
• Online Shopping Tips for the Holiday Season - If you’re planning on doing a bit of your holiday shopping online, there are a few tips you should keep in mind...
• Safety Tips to Follow for Your Holiday Shopping - With Christmas Eve upon us, you really can’t wait much longer before you head out the door and get that holiday shopping...
• Simple Tips to Avoid Credit Card Fraud - It seems as if the stories in the news about credit card fraud continue to pop up throughout the country. I thought...

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 9:06 am and is filed under Card Security, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.