When I travel outside of the country I always use a money belt. Its a good place for your passport as well. The worst thing you can do is carry travellers checks as most establishments will screw you on the exchange rates.
I look at it this way. With ANY credit or debit card you are subjected to fraudulent use. With cash, someone has to physically rob you. The chances of the latter are less than the former.
I don't own a money belt nor do I know how to use one (around your waist, shoulder pouch, leg pouch et cetera). Do you own a money pouch and if so...do you feel its more secure than using your credit card? I think going to the rest room prior to making a purchase any where may be a little extreme. Do you go into a private stall in the bathroom prior to pulling out the cash (sarcasm) and I'm not being rude... Just making light of the situation. I was at the floral shop a few weeks ago... Excuse me...where's your bathroom. I was at the Ski shop a few weeks ago getting some new equipment... Excuse me...where's your bathroom. Mark
What I do is this: Before I leave my hotel I take out the cash I think I will spend during the day and place it in a normal wallet that has only one credit card. Any remaining credit cards or cash stay in the money belt. If I get robbed they get one days worth of cash and one credit card.
But following stalking the waiters isn't ? All you had to do was get the money out in your car before you went in the flower shop. Whenever I car large amounts of money, I never keep it in my wallet, that is the first thing thieves will ask for. I recently lost my wallet a while back in the parking lot of a convience store. Luckily the $700 cash I had was on my body and not in it. There was 1 dollar in it, my license and my credit card. A guy who I know for a fact is pretty hard strapped turned it in to the store owner and did not even steal the dollar. The card was not used and nothing was missing. I'm sure it would have been a different story had I had $701 in there though.
... and the ridiculousness continious... Mark, it is time to change restaurants. By the way, have you ever heard of paying BY CASH??? As Volente said (me too earlier) they can get all your info from the copy of your receipt for fuck's sake, they don't need a piece of paper to write it down. It is already printed out... P.S.: Were I a fraudulent waiter, I would make sure I steal the identity of that asshole who keeps following me. After all, I even have a deffense: he was there all the time!!
Yeah, but did you forget the names??? Seriously, what the banks tell you is good for something, but they will not tell you that simply there is no way you could protect a CC, if you actually intend to use it. Right now I have access to 2-3 cards per day including everything, even ADDRESS. And I am not even in retail... Annual credit report check: It is only good for checking who else is checking your report. Let's say if there is a collection agency, you might want to ask them... Otherwise once per year is just too rare occasion to check fraudulent activity... Monthly statements: Much better. Most card have online access nowadays, so if you care, you can check your activity EVERYDAY, takes only a minute, and much faster to catch unathorized activity. Changing numbers: It probably feels good for you, but I don't see the protection value. Your data can be compromised right after the change, so what did you achieve by changing?? Look, banks advise you this shit, because they don't want to tell you that your data is in god's hands and please cross your fingers. Credit cards are such a huge business anyway, that even with fraud it is a big moneymaker for them, so they just cover you for the losses...