W
ith the holidays around the corner (and black Friday)
many are thinking of ways to cut down on holiday
stresses. One of those ways is to avoid the rush of shoppers,
the headache of parking and the lugging of packages
through malls and do all (or most) of your shopping on-line.
With the recent identity breach it behooves would be on-
line shoppers to brush up on some preventive measures
that will help protect your identity and your cash during this
most vulnerable on-line shopping time.
Choose Credit Over Debit
You probably don't often hear advice to use a credit card
instead of a debit card or cash, but if you can do it responsibly,
you absolutely should.
Credit cards offer protection from identity theft that debit
cards don't. For example, with a credit card, your liability for
fraudulent charges caps at $50 as long as you report the fraud
within 30 or 60 days (depending on the company). However, if
you're using your debit card online and someone gains access
to it, they can clean out your checking account before you
even learn there's a problem. It's likely you'll get part of that
money back, but possible that it can take a while, and that you
won't get it all. So, use a credit card instead and pay the bill
off monthly.
1
