on | 6 COMMENTS

Is Your Card the Target of Fraud? Know Instantly

By now, everyone has heard of the huge breach of credit and debit card data at Target affecting up to 70 million people. Or, is it 110 million? Either way, all I can say is “YOW!

Is Your Card the Target of Fraud?
Are you sitting around wondering whether some fraudster is out there right now making a purchase with your card? You’ll no doubt be scanning your regular statements or scanning your transactions online.

Not me.

Huh? What makes me so cavalier? I’m not. I’ll know right away if there’s an unauthorized purchase on any of the prepaid cards in my family. How? I get real-time text notifications for any activity on any of the prepaid cards in my family. If I see something amiss, I can take action immediately.

Are you using a credit card, debit card, or prepaid card that provides real-time alerts whenever a purchase is made? If so, let us know which one in the comments. If not, you should be. In my mind, that feature should be a minimum requirement of any reasonable credit, debit, or prepaid card offering.

Real-time activity alerts won’t prevent you from being a target of fraud, but at least you’ll know right away when you’re hit.

6 comments:

Anonymous aka The Blog Post Author

Netspend has anytime text alerts any time my card is used I get a text where it was used at how much was spent the date and time the transaction was done

Bill Dwight aka The Blog Post Author

Good info - thanks Jennie. Here's the page describing NetSpend's nice "Anytime Alerts" feature: https://www.netspend.com/why_netspend/powerful_tools/anytime_alerts.shtml Apparently, the real time alert does not include the current balance, but that can be retrieved with a follow-on BAL text command.

Lauren Carter aka The Blog Post Author

TransCard's prepaid cards have features such as Account Alerts. These alerts let you monitor virtually any type of activity on your accounts, and be notified by email or cell phone text message when they happen. It is one more way to protect yourself from unwanted surprises. Here is a link to learn more: http://www.transcard.com/Products/Reloadable-Cards.aspx

Bill Dwight aka The Blog Post Author

Thank you Lauren - consumers can look on the scrolling banner of TransCard partners and clients on the TransCard.com home page to see if a local financial institution offers TransCard cards. Or you can call TransCard customer support to inquire if there is one nearby.

Anonymous aka The Blog Post Author

Chase (Mileage Plus and Amazon Visa cards) offers several customizable notifications, so I get instant notifications of charges over a certain amount, or any charge at a gas station (since I drive an electric car). Wells Fargo also offers notifications. PayPal too - using push notifications to their iPhone app...

Bill Dwight aka The Blog Post Author

Ha! I've been a Wells Fargo customer forever and never saw their rapid alerts capability, which I now see here: https://www.wellsfargo.com/credit-cards/alerts/ Gonna check that out asap. I have Mileage Plus via Chase too, so I'll look into that as well. Thanks for the info!

Post a Comment