Credit Card Security
If you have lost your credit card it can be extremely stressful a theif could potentially spend thousands of dollars, wipe out your credit rating, and steal expensive and valuable goods from shops around where the card is stolen. What is more, Credit card fraud is on the rise. The internet is a haven for this type of crime known as identity theft.
Unsuspecting internet users are lured into providing personal details such as their credit card numbers, expiry dates, birth dates, addresses, bank account numbers and social security numbers and then this information is then used to pose as that person to obtain goods or service which would otheriwise not have been available to the criminal. The nature of the internet and online environments makes this all to easy for a shrewd criminal. Even in the physical world a misplaced handbag, a careless exit from a taxi or a bus can all to lead to days of agony and stress about the uses of the dreaded plastic.
It is for this reason, that personally I prefer to use a debit card only. It is usually protected by a pin number which means that if it is lost, it cannot be used without my consent. Also, the accounts which are linked for payment to the credit card can be disrupted terribly when the card is stolen and must be replaced. This can sometimes be avoided when a debit card is lost. What is more, I am naturally suspicious of my own nature which means that I don’t trust myself to avoid overspending on credit cards. I use the debit card strategy to avoid this problem as well.
Some strategies which others use in order to avoid these problems is to just cut up their plastic, reduce the number of credit cards they have avialable or go cold turkry on credit card usage. I have often been sold american express, diners club and just this morning in the supermarket Mastercard tried to sell me their wares. Most of my freinds now have extensive crdit card debts to pay off and they are only young. Is our society completely consumed by credit now? Where does all of this credit come from? I am interested to hear what others think about this issue though.