Tired of credit cards getting compromised- any tips?

[flyonpa]

MasterCard has ShopSafe, At many of its members banks, It generates a unique number you can use for each different online place you shop, you can set the credit limit on each one, how long its good for, if its for one purchase or countinue transaction, but it will only work at that one merchant . So if someone get that number is of no value, it won't work elsewhere.

Visa/Discover/Amex also have similar type Virtual number cards.

[jw2]

Discover Cards have an on/off switch (they call it "freeze") that you can set from your smartphone, online or by calling them. They are selling it as a feature if you lose your card. I wish all cards had this and I would always keep the card turned off until just before I use it and shut if off right after I use it. I figured Visa and M/C would have this by now.

Very simple phone app, click it to unfreeze, process transaction, click app again to freeze, done.

[joe moving]

Isn't there a way to get 1 time use cards?

[Creek Hollow]

Originally Posted by sj08054

First thing I would do is make sure you clean and dis-infect any nasty stuff on your computer.

+1

We do not let our credit cards out of sight. In restaurants we pay cash unless we are familiar with the establishment and are handing the card to a person at the checkout register ourselves.

We carry credit cards in RFID cases instead of wallets.

After having credit cards compromised at two different Walmarts we stopped using cards there and always pay cash (on the rare occasions we go to Walmart nowadays).

Carefully check credit card statements if you get paper statements and do it at least weekly if you can monitor it online. Sometimes thieves will charge a very small amount first to test the waters, so to speak. The sooner you can report suspicious charges the better.

Edited for online caution: Make sure you are on a secure website, i.e., https before submitting credit card information. We try to use the same card for all online transactions. It makes easier to monitor.

[Lacerta]

I agree with those saying to check your computer. If they got your email password as well as your account numbers, that could be the source of the problem.

Boot into safe mode, and then run your virus scanner (full scan, not a quick scan), run Malwarebytes, and run CCleaner. There are free versions of all, and between them, they do an excellent job of finding things that want to hide.

Then reboot in regular mode and run them all again.

Also, the most likely places to have your card information stolen are restaurants and gas stations. Restaurants because the card leaves your sight, and gas stations because the swipers are unmonitored and hackers put card readers on them that are difficult to see.

So at restaurants, pay cash, or pay at the front desk, or if you must use a card, use a credit card. At gas stations, either pay inside or fill up at the closest pump to the inside, where the teller can see the pump.