tellyworth, nope, I use my debit card.
Honey, not sure about the technology, it would be interesting to find out.
LSLGuy, good info, thanks. I feel a little less pissed now.
RealityChuck, good idea about two credit cards, I’ll be making an application today.
Senegoid, thanks, worth investigating the virtual route.
Machine Elf, it’s not really the loss that’s an issue (I know I’ll be refunded), it’s the ball ache of being without a card for a week. Another reason to go for two cards.
I work for an organization, we help people on public aid get off of it.
More than half of our clients have felony convictions. A lot of them are thieves, so I know how a lot of scams works. First of all, most of these people handle your credit cards physically. Sorry but once you give someone your credit card it’s so easy to copy, photography or even memorize a credit card number (Remember the first part of a CC number IDs the bank so you don’t have to memorize that really). They easily can see your CID code too.
At places like hotels, clerks have access to numbers and your home addresses. If they are not actually using your credit cards, they sell the numbers. An accounting clerk in a hotel can see hundreds of credit cards a day. They simply sell the info, thus relieving them of actually getting caught.
Apply for a job? Do you put down your SS#? Why they don’t need it, unless they actually are serious about hiring you? Yet many places use online forms that refuse to complete the application without one.
And these are just the tip of the iceberg. I could list a lot more ways, and those are the ones my clients are willing to share with me, because they like me. I often wonder what they have done, that I’m still in the clouds about.