Comments on: Credit Card Suspended for Merchant Database Breach

By: ib

ib — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:44:14 +0000

hi there, flexo… i don’t know if you have hannaford supermarkets where you live (or travel to) but they had a MAJOR security breach which made news a few months ago. my citicard was replaced too & i suspect it was as a result of this (also considering they already had sent me a new card &# not that long before the incident came to light). who knows, though? i am sure there are other businesses which are too relaxed (technology-wise) with our info whether it made the news at a later date or not.

in my humble experiences, i have found that internet use is definitely more safe for card use (as we are told) than in person (and i use cards on the net a lot; always on sites i know are authentic). my boyfriend uses the web less and has had MANY cards replaced and many fraudulent things appear on his bills, though all have been handled satisfactorily. he still won’t go back to one restaurant i pointed out might have been the source of one of the breaches for him (cash advances to his credit card a few states away!). i digress……

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:14:26 +0000

For travel and for “fraud” that leads to them changing my cards # etc. I now have a “throw down card,” both Debit and Credit.” That I keep around just in case. In the case of my Debit card it is from a different bank and I keep just enough money there to cover the minimum so I don’t pay a monthly fee and/or what I need for a trip somewhere. (I expect to travel to west Africa at least once a year for the next few years and will travel with that card in case I did not bring enough cash with me.) That way the card is not linked to my primary bank.

By: fathersez

fathersez — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:17:22 +0000

I always inform the credit card issuer whenever I travel.

Even so sometimes, the card is declined at some foreign places and the merchant just says it’s not their fault.

So far, I have been lucky in the sense of having backup plans when my card got declined.

By: Anca

Anca — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:44:55 +0000

I’m traveling next week and notified my bank and CC (both under the Citibank umbrella). Hopefully I will be able to use my cards if necessary. But I am a little annoyed that they don’t provide an easy way to notify them, such as a link saying “Tell us you’ll be using your card in an unexpected locale”. I had to e-mail customer service to ask how to notify them and they just said to reply back with the dates and places.

By: Winter

Winter — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:53:46 +0000

Financial institutions are trying to get the right to disclose the merchant, but there can be a couple reasons they don’t have the info:

1. credit card company notices a pattern of fraud on a batch of cards, but hasn’t tracked it back to a single source yet
2. credit card company would rather not tick off the merchant by dragging them through the mud
3. Law enforcement may request the information not be disclosed because of an investigation.

Financial institutions, like the credit union I belong to and work for with a trade association, would love to disclose the info because we don’t want our own members to think WE are the problem!

By: KC

KC — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:35:30 +0000

Credit Card companies are always hush-hush about any sort of fraud. I had a mom and pop business that I buy from have their internet security breached. My card # was stolen and about $2k was charged. Mastercard called and handled everything – no charges to me, new card issued. I tried to find out what happened, but they just played it off.

Well a few days later the owner of the business called me to apologize – he said it was his business that had been breached, he was having it fixed, he’d even handle my business offline if that’s what it took, and he offered me a gift certificate – this guy has a customer for life cause of this! But the interesting thing is he said he was taking a lot of heat from Visa and MC cause he was notifying his customers he was the weak link!! They were threatening to sue him!! Well I kept my business with him, but I do it by check and money order now. This incident has really made me careful of credit cards. Those guys at Visa and MC are such devils. I use my cards as little as possible and I pay them off so they get no finance charges from me.

By: dogatemyfinances

dogatemyfinances — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:50:20 +0000

I would be livid.

Some states have better identity theft laws than others. You might be able to get out of them what company it was.