Once upon a time, it was relatively easy to keep your money safe. If you had actual gold or cash, you could just lock it up and that was that. However, today with the widespread use of credit cards, keeping your money safe is more difficult. When a thief steals your wallet, they’re not just stealing the ten dollars in cash you have – they’re stealing access to a credit line of potentially thousands of dollars. Other than hugging your purse close when on the subway, there are several things you can do to keep your credit card information safe.

First and foremost, use your common sense. Don’t just hand out your credit card like cotton candy. Just like you’re supposed to look around and assess the situation when you withdraw money from an ATM, assess the situation in which you are being asked to hand over your credit card. Are you in a back alley buying merchandise that looks like it fell off the back of the truck? Did you click on a flashing neon colored link that promises you an iPad for twelve bucks? Did you receive an email offering you a fantastic price on Viagra? Use your brain – maybe you don’t want to give your credit card number to these people.

It’s definitely a good idea to get added security features for your credit card. For example, some credit cards include a picture ID so it’s easy to tell whether the person handing over the card is the rightful owner. Some credit card companies will flag transactions that they view as suspicious and cut off access to your card until you personally phone them and tell them that it is okay.

Check your credit card balance online every few days or so to make sure that all the charges look right. That way, if someone steals your card you can catch on relatively quickly and report the unauthorized charges to the credit card company. Instead of signing your name on the back of the credit card, write “See ID” instead.

If you’re shopping online, make sure that the site you are using is a secure site. You can find out if a site is secure or not by checking for a little padlock at the bottom of the browser window or if the site URL says https instead of http. Don’t transmit your credit card number over a non secure network. What this means is that it’s probably not a good idea to do your online shopping at a public network at Starbucks - wait until you’re at home on a network that is secured by a password. Always make sure your browser is the most recent one and that you have downloaded all the security patches and updates. Also, your anti-virus program should always be up to date since some scammers will load hidden programs onto your computer that can capture your credit card information without you ever knowing.

Gary Foster is in the marketing department of the website LifeCover. They provide life insurance quotes for Canadians - if you have any personal finance questions get in touch via his Twitter account.

For additional information on credit cards or related topics please visit our library of credit card articles.


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