The fact remains your card number can be taken from the cc machine after it is run. That is equivalent to locking your house door after you let the thief make a copy of the key. False security in your own mind.
After I made the changes several years ago...I stopped having problems with my credit card. Will continue with the routine of not letting someone disappear with my credit card when they should be ringing up my purchase. However, if you feel comfortable with letting anybody at any store walk away with your credit card into another room you don't have access too instead of ringing up the purchase while you're standing at the cashier...more power to you and good luck. I can easily give the store clerk my credit card when he/she returns considering I'm still standing at the cashier just like those before and after me. The fact remains...a credit card number can be taken via any method. We just don't need to make it easy for them. Mark
I only have one main credit card that I use. I also use my debit as well but do not keep much money in it in order to limit liability. The credit card company is very watchful. I have 2 cards on the account and more than one occasion they have locked it when I tried to use it. The last time it happened was because my wife used it to get gas out of town and about 10 minutes later I tried to use it in another town to purchase an $800 tv and they locked it. I had to call and verify that it was me making the purchase for them to unlock it. I have had credit and debit cards for 16 years and have never had any fraud committed on any of them. My wife did have her debit card number stolen by someone in a foreign country a few years ago but they only used it to make some small purchases under $1. The bank said they do that as a test to see if the card is still valid before they try to clean the account out. She also had a CC number hacked and they bought some items in euros but it was not very much. Your liability is only $50 even if fraud is committed. I'll risk that over being paranoid and carrying excessive amounts of cash. $50 is not enough money for me to be paranoid or lose sleep over. Thought you might like this article. http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-bu...o-use-your-debit-card?mod=bb-checking_savings
Way too much work/risk in this... The amount of CC's bar patrons (myself included) forget on busy Fri/Sat night is quite surprising. I went to collect mine the next day after my stupor lifted and the bartender hands me a bowl that must've had at least 30-50 of 'um in there. Not only that, he leaves the bowl in front of me so I can fish for mine, and proceeds to receive deliveries out in the back. Too easy.
SWEET! I know where I'm going early Saturday morning. I can see it now: Me: "Hi barkeep. Holy moly, what a night. I thought Romulan Ale was illegal? Anyway, could I please have my card back? I left it here last night." Bartender: "Sure. What's your name?" Me: "I don't remember, it's on the card."
speaking of which, let's just say this isn't the first incident (nor bank) of something happening like below... http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/109237/if-you-were-billionaire-for-five-hours When Paul Fischer checked his bank account Friday night, he had a happy surprise. His balance had exploded to $88,888,888,888.88. A very lucky number indeed, and close to $89 billion. Of course, the balance was a technical error by SunTrust Bank (NYSE: STI - News), which quickly fixed the problem. It also may have occurred in other accounts. "You say, 'Eighty-eight billion, what can I do with that?'" said Mr. Fischer, who owns a jewelry concessionaire for Florida theme parks. "Maybe a handful of us could have brought down SunTrust Bank." More from WSJ.com: ⢠You Can Buy This 220-Foot Yacht for $1 (or More) ⢠Ranks of Rich Earners Declined 5% in 2008 ⢠Tin-Can Collector Died a Millionaire Mr. Fischer had other ideas as well. Before the problem was fixed, he asked a SunTrust rep if he could move the money to an interest-bearing account until it was reclaimed and donate the interest to charity. Total interest: more than $7.3 million. The bank said no. The money was stripped out of his account by Saturday morning. "It's all gone. I'm poor again," he said. "I was a billionaire for five hours." This kind of bank error happens frequently. But Mr. Fischer raises an interesting question: What if, for five hours, you truly did have $89 billion? What would you do with the money? The ground rules are that you would have to give the money back â and whatever you bought or invested with it â after five hours.
Nowadays with incidences of identity theft growing by the number each day, I think it is not only the ATM that we should be careful when using, but the CC's as well. There's just too many scams and possible identity theft that we should be wary of.