Fraudulent Credit Card Use Article

The Three Most Important Steps To Resolve Credit Card Identity Theft In 30 Minutes Or Less

With so much of our financial transactions now done online, the incidence of credit card identity theft is at an all-time high. A common scenario is that when your credit card bill arrives in the mail, you may notice a charge for a strange item on your statement, or you may not recognize the vendor listed. The charge could be a small one, almost unnoticeable, or a hefty one amounting to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. You may have a fleeting thought that you purchased something during a marathon shopping excursion or online session, or perhaps a spouse or other authorized user made a purchase that you were not aware of. So you call the phone number of the vendor listed on the statement, and low and behold, you quickly discover that the $700 purchase of a backyard trampoline could not have possibly been yours, as you do not even have a backyard, and owning a trampoline has never made it to your wish list! You now quickly realize that you have just become a victim of credit card identity theft! Now what?

The following three steps are the most important ones to resolve this issue, and can be accomplished in roughly half an hour, give or take. A small commitment of time, considering the potential negative consequences of fraudulent credit card use. The key is to act immediately to resolve credit card fraud in time before any additional fraudulent charges go through, or before your window of time to resolve it closes with your creditors.

STEP 1: Call your credit card company immediately to inform them of the fraud. Upon this notice, they should reverse the fraudulent credit card charges and place a lock on your account. When talking to credit card representatives, make a note of the date, time, and the name of the representative assisting you and save this information in your records. To be prepared for these emergencies, especially should your card be lost or stolen, you should have a photocopy of all your credit cards and contact numbers stored in a safe place. You may also want to have a copy when you travel, stored in a safe place separate from your purse or wallet.

STEP 2: Now you want to get in touch with the credit reporting agencies to report the fraud and to also request that a 90-day fraud alert be noted on your credit report, so that this activity does not reflect negatively on your credit history. You do not need to contact all three agencies, just request with one (TransUnion, Equifax, or Experian) and the credit card fraud alerts will be placed on all three credit reports.

The 90-day alert will inform creditors that they should verify your identity before they open up any new accounts because you may have been a victim of fraud. When experiencing fraud, you are also entitled to a free copy of your credit report from all three agencies, which is a perfect opportunity to review any other discrepancies that may be in your report as well while you are at it.

STEP 3: Finally, you will want to visit the website for the Federal Trade Commission and fill out an identity theft affidavit, which can be used to report fraud to creditors and should also be kept for your records. If you encounter identity theft other than for credit cards, such as fraudulent activity on your bank account, you will also want to file a police report with your local law enforcement agency. All of these documents should be kept in a safe place should the need arise in the future to document the situation.

With these three critical steps, each taking about 10 minutes each, you should be able resolve your credit card identity theft in 30 minutes or less, and breathe a sigh of relief that you are not responsible for your fraudulent charges, that your credit has been preserved, and that you have deterred future fraud on your credit card accounts. The speed with which you notice potential fraud and then report it is crucial in resolving such issues, so you will want to make a habit of reviewing and reconciling your bank and credit card statements as soon as possible. Most creditors have a time limit as to when charges can be reversed, so the sooner you report it, the better.