Feb 20, 2009

Credit Card Mess

I signed into my credit card online account today to check my balance, and they had a message on the front page. Apparently, my account was “compromised” in some way, so they are shutting it down and issuing me a new credit card number. This is the second time this has happened to me. The last time was with my bank card though- someone hacked into an account somewhere and got my number, so I had to get a new one. But there weren’t any unauthorized purchases or any money missing, so it wasn’t that bad. And so far, there isn’t any funny business going on with my credit card *knock on wood*. I guess they do this as a preventative measure before anything really bad happens, but it’s all just a little bit scary. And since it’s already happened to me twice, I have to wonder if it’s something I’m doing wrong that’s putting my accounts at risk?

3 comments:

Canadian Saver said...

It might just be the places you are shopping at. I had this happen last year and I had some stuff I'd reserved on the card and wanted to keep it... they were absolutely insistent that I change it, so it must have been quite a security breach.

Good luck getting this sorted out!

The Executioner said...

A lot of times this happens because a particular company had its records compromised. So if you shopped at that store during the period in question, they automatically issue you a new card. There's nothing you can do to prevent it from happening, other than to forgo using credit and debit cards altogether.

Sunflowers said...

I've had this happen to my debit card (twice)... I remember the bank specifically named the store that had its records compromised (though I don't remember which store it was, possibly TJ Maxx). Definitely not your fault, and like The Executioner said, there's nothing you can really do about it. :\