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Research: Ways to ensure safety and protection of credit cards - Credit-Land.com

Credit cards are an integral part of our lives and all of us own one or more cards. When you own a credit card you must also ensure that you use it responsibly. We are not talking about using it responsibly only in terms of staying within your credit limit and paying your bills on time. What we are referring to is to be careful with your card and ensure the safety of your card as well as your transactions.

The security and protection of your credit card is very important in this day and age. There are a number of credit card related scams that happen on a daily basis. Cyber thieves are always on the lookout for ways and means to access your card information. There are two components in this whole issue of safety and protection. Firstly, the card may be physically stolen and misused and the secondly, cyber thieves may access your card information and misuse it at a later stage. Hence it is important that you get into the habit of staying safe by doing the right things.

There are companies such as MasterCard and Visa that offer 24 X 7 monitoring of the expenses on your card. If you opt for this facility on your card you can ensure that there will be no fraud expenses on your card. For instance, if you are always used to filling gas at a particular gas station, the monitoring service will send you an alert and inform you the minute your card is swiped at some other gas station other than your regular one. This may come in handy in most situations, especially if your card has been stolen.

In case of loss of card, you must intimate the card company immediately and they will be able to give you a replacement. If you lose your wallet or in case your card is stolen while you are on a holiday, then inform the customer service through any of the hotline numbers as soon as possible. The card will be blocked immediately to ensure that the card is not misused.

Ensure that you maintain confidentiality and don’t give the PIN number to anyone. Fraudsters may try to get such information and mislead you into given out such details.

Always check your monthly bills and never pay them blindly. If there are some disputable charges you have liability insurance and you can deny these charges on your card.