There are two little-known ways to stop credit card fraud and protect your credit card account security. When combined, they form a formidable defense against the person who lifts your card and tries to make unauthorized purchases with it.

Today I’ll reveal the first of these powerful measures that can protect your credit card account security and prevent fraudulent transactions.  It involves taking advantage of a new feature being promoted by well-known credit card companies.  

Some of the major credit card companies now give their customers the ability to upload a personal image that will be transferred onto their new credit cards. In one of the commercials promoting this option, an excited ”customer” enthuses about how great it is to have a picture of her puppy on her card.

However, if you are serious about protecting your credit card, forget about putting a picture of Spot or Fluffy on your card no matter how adorable your pets.

There’s only one picture that should be going on your card, and that’s your own.

So when you apply for one of these cards, be sure to take advantage of this option by uploading a recent photo of yourself. (As opposed to that flattering photo of yourself taken twenty years ago in which you looked like a movie star.)

The largest U.S. bank began offering this added option on its cards several years ago – strictly for user photos – because it was not offered as a “feel good” sales promotion, but strictly as a security enhancement.

It may be just a matter of time before all credit card companies offer this option to their customers as well. For sure, it’s a good idea. 

Of course, for this security precaution to work, the merchant who is swiping your card must actually look at the card to see that there is a picture on it, and then study the person before him. He or she must make a comparison between the photo on the card and the person making the charge to see if the face on the card resembles the face of the person before him.

Fortunately, we human beings are positive geniuses at differentiating facial features. So while this is not perfect protection, it can be very effective. Bottom line, this is a huge step in the right direction and you’re definitely better off having your image on your card. 

Should you want to increase you protection further still, there’s another proactive step you can take that works hand-in-hand with the image component. And that will be the subject of my next post.

My last post was about credit cards and trucks. Specifically it was about a business owner who wanted a credit card assigned to each of his delivery trucks so he could track gasoline costs for each truck.

Since a credit card cannot be assigned to an inanimate object like a truck, this business owner’s only option was to add human users to his multicard account and put each card in the name of one of his delivery drivers.

Still, since drivers were not assigned to specific trucks, but drove different ones for different deliveries, he planned on leaving those credit cards in specific trucks.

Yet leaving a card in a truck that will be driven by several drivers can cause headaches in the long run. It’s harder to detect fraud and, if a card is stolen from inside a truck, you have a hassle on your hands. Plus your system of monitoring is disrupted while you wait for a replacement credit card.

A WAY AROUND THIS SECURITY PROBLEM so you don’t have to keep cards in your trucks and risk having them stolen or used for unauthorized purchases is this: [Read more →]

You can protect your credit card account security with multi-card products in ways unavailable to single-card account users. In fact, if you are going to have other users on your card, give this option serious consideration.

To recap, a single-card account has only one account number, no matter how many users are added or how many cards are mailed out to those users. Each card has the same number. A multi-card account, however, has a primary account number and several secondary account numbers – one for each card issued.

The three major shortcomings of single-card account are: [Read more →]

Credit card protection while traveling falls under the general topic of what we call – in the biz – credit card account security.

“Account Security” relates to a whole range of credit card issues which involve procedures for verifying your identity, establishing who the authorized and unauthorized users are on your account, identity theft prevention, password protection and so forth.

Yet, today’s tip involves a danger to your account security that is unknown to many vacationers. [Read more →]