You don't have to be as fanatical about keeping your card locked as I. If you have an account which has been active for, say, 18 months, and then you find unauthorized charges on your statement, that means your account was OK for 18 months. When you've been through this a few times, you become a believer in the technique I'm suggesting.

As I said earlier, these web apps allow you not only to lock/unlock your card; they allow you to set up alerts which you can receive via text or email, and of the two, I strongly recommend text alerts, as these alerts come through instantaneously, whereas emails may take a couple of minutes. On my accounts, I have alerts set up for any purchases which occur without the card being physically present, and for any purchases over a very low dollar amount, whether or not the card is present. In my experience, with the one noted exception, I get a text on my phone immediately after placing an order- five or six seconds, indicating the charge took place, the exact dollar amount, and the name of the vendor. Once in a while, I'll get two notifications back to back; the first will be a charge of $0.00 and then immediately get a text showing the correct amount of the purchase. I can only guess some vendors want to make sure the CC account is active before they attempt to charge the full amount.

So, let's say you place an order online and you don't get immediate notification via text that the charge went through. OK, leave the card unlocked until you do get the notification. In the case of Brownells, let's say I place an order midnight Saturday. It's going to be at least two days before the nice ladies in Brownells accounting department attempt to manually charge my card. What are the odds that in that two day window, my card will be compromised? You would have to be quite unlucky to buck those odds.

Make no mistake- this is an effective technique, and since I began using it, I haven't had a single problem with my account. Go ahead and hack the database of some vendor or other and get my info. Skim my card in a restaurant. Do whatever, but that information is useless to you unless you happen to try to use it in these tiny windows when my account is open. Again, when the account is locked, even I can't use it when standing at the point of purchase with my card in hand.

I'll say it again- this is not an inconvenience, not when you have in your possession at all times a miniature computer we call a phone, which allows you to lock/unlock your card in less than 30 seconds. No, it's not an inconvenience; it's empowering. It's "ha ha, fuck you!"

I just turned in notifications for my main card, so every time there's a charge, I get a text. If I see one come through I didn't make, I can react immediately.

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Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by darkest2000:
Actually, no it makes no sense to lock a credit card unless you're trying to enforce spending within your household or organization (i.e. kids, employee, etc...).

Credit cards don't simply stop getting hacked or breached while it's locked,...

What in the world are you babbling about? I am the only one who uses this card. There's no "enforcing' anything. And, oh, it gets hacked "in the background." What a load of horsehit.

I'm offering good advice. You keep your nose out of it. The gall, trying to discourage an effective technique.

quote:

Essentially, doing this may stop a charge attempt (for which you're not liable for to begin with), but at that point it's already compromised so your banking institute would've sent you a replacement card anyway.

Man, you are full of shit. Do you know how I have found in the past that my account had been compromised? I opened my statement and saw charges I didn't make, and then I called my CC company. They didn't inform me. I informed them.

Hello?? McFly??

And if the card is locked and they can't successfully place charges on my account, the account is NOT compromised. Oh, they have my CC number. Do you know what they're going to do with that number when their attempted charge fails?

And I just love this "you're not liable for the charge anyway." What a fucked-up attitude!! Just let thieves get what they want. Don't bother with frustrating them by wasting their time. And let your CC company eat the charge. Someone pays for these thefts. Goddamn, man! You think the Money Fairy just wishes it all away?

Well then, we'll just have to disagree on that.