A number of years ago, I had my wallet stolen while I was on a business trip in the Midwest.  Ultimately, I did not lose any money.  However, it was both time-consuming and stressful to go through the process of cancelling all of my cards and having them reissued.

When it comes to protecting your identity and your credit, your primary weapon is common sense.  Trust your instinct and be wary should you find yourself in a situation where your personal or card information may be compromised. 

As an aid, I’ve compiled a list of common tips that can help you prevent issues:

1. Shred any credit card offers or receipts that you no longer need.  Inexpensive shredders will cut paper into long, thin strips.  However, cross-cut shredders will turn the paper into confetti, which would be more difficult to reverse engineer.
2. Sign the back of your cards as soon as you receive them.
3. Periodically check your credit report for fraudulent accounts or transactions.  You can get a free report annually from each of the reporting bureaus through AnnualCreditReport.
4. Each month, scan your credit card bills for fraudulent activities.  If you notice an incorrect charge, alert your credit card company immediately.
5. Never leave cards, receipts or bills lying around in an open area.  Keep them secure.
6. Compile a list of all of your cards, account numbers, contact phone numbers and expiration dates and keep it in a safe place.  This list will come in handy if you ever need to cancel your cards.
7. When paying online with a credit card, always ensure that the pages where you enter your information have been encrypted with SSL. Look for “https://” at the beginning of the URL.
8. Keep an eye on your credit card at all times and get it back as soon as possible.  The less time it’s out of your hands, the less likely it is that someone can pilfer the card number.
9. Always protect your PIN number and never keep it with your card.
10. Carry as few credit cards as possible, as this will minimize the risk of losing them.
11. When signing credit card receipts, draw a line through any sections where additional charges can be added.
12. Never loan your cards to anyone.
13. If a vendor messes up a credit card transaction, ensure that the receipt is destroyed.
14. Never fax or email your credit card information.  Email is typically not secure; and a fax may lay out in an open area for a long period of time.
15. Be wary about providing credit or personal information over the phone.  Only provide it to reputable companies during phone calls which you have initiated.

Have you ever visited a restaurant or store and noticed a sign that stated "$10 Credit Card Minimum Required"?  Did you know that such minimum charge policies violate credit card company policies?

Benny, over at bennykusman.com, has compiled a list of credit card facts that may not be widely known.  In addition to no minimum charges, he notes other little nuggets, like the fact that vendors are not allowed to include a surcharge for using a credit card instead of cash.

Sound interesting?  You can read more here...

With the economy tightening, and consumers less able to tap into their home equity, many are more dependent than ever on credit cards.  At the same time, banks are reducing their risk exposure to those likely to default on card payments and have begun to reduce the spending limits available to some of their card holders.

Since credit scores are determined, in part, upon card balances relative to card limits (as per my recent article on building credit), some individuals are finding that their credit scores are being adversely impacted by these changes.

You can read the full article here.

Building credit is more important today than it has been in the past.  Not only is it needed when you want to purchase a car or a home, but it can also be used to influence whether you get a job, a good cell phone plan or low rates on insurance.  By building better credit, you can also influence the rates you pay on loans.  

Here are nine tips on establishing and building better credit:

Here are 5 ways to get your credit score for free. Note, all of them are the credit scores developed by the credit bureaus themselves, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, and are not your FICO score, which is only sold by the Fair Issac Corporation (you can get your FICO score through myfico.com). Only the FICO score is used by lenders to determine your credit worthiness. However, you can at least use these credit bureau scores to get a general sense of how good your credit is. (more...)

Thanks to Speedmaster for the tip!

(via Consumerist)