Protect Your Money & Credit

ID theft and credit card fraud are, unfortunately, increasingly more common problems. Protect yourself with these tips.

Never give your credit card number over the phone, unless you initiated the call.
Avoid losing track of your credit card.
Always check to make sure you receive your card back after you use it for a purchase.
Never sign a receipt with blank spaces in it.
Always check your receipt before signing it.
Make sure the correct total is clearly printed on the receipt.
Request your carbons, if any, or watch while the salesperson tears them in small pieces.
Cut up cards you no longer use into little pieces.
Never throw a credit card away or mail it back to the company in one piece. If you mail a credit card back to the company, cut it up and keep one piece with numbers. This makes it impossible for someone to steal your number.
Keep all the charge slips and check them against your bill.
If you find a mistake on your bill, write the company.
Make sure the machine-coded number often in the upper right corner of your receipt matches the number written in the total slot.

Report the loss at once.
Telephone the credit card company and give your name, address, and account number.
Make a note of the date and time you called and the person you talked with. Ask for mailing address.
Follow up with a letter giving the same information as above. Send it registered mail, return receipt requested. This provides a dated signature record that your letter arrived.
Keep the telephone bill, showing the long distance call to the company, if any. This will also provides proof of the date and time you called.
Know that when the company gets the information that your card was lost, you are no longer responsible for any unauthorized charges made on the card.
Keep all the information in your home business file.

Credit Card Safety (FCS7149) by Nayda l. Torres. Published by: Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences (rev. 12/2005).

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