The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice; instead, it is for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not be current. This website may contain links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser; we do not recommend or endorse the contents of any third-party sites. Readers of this website should contact their attorney, accountant or credit counselor to obtain advice with respect to their particular situation. No reader, user, or browser of this site should act or not act on the basis of information on this site. Always seek personal legal, financial or credit advice for your relevant jurisdiction. Only your individual attorney or advisor can provide assurances that the information contained herein – and your interpretation of it – is applicable or appropriate to your particular situation. Use of, and access to, this website or any of the links or resources contained within the site do not create an attorney-client or fiduciary relationship between the reader, user, or browser and website owner, authors, contributors, contributing firms, or their respective employers.
Credit.com receives compensation for the financial products and services advertised on this site if our users apply for and sign up for any of them. Compensation is not a factor in the substantive evaluation of any product.
Consumers need to be vigilant all year-round to keep their credit safe from fraud when shopping — And the need to monitor gets magnified during the holiday season, when we tend to spend considerably more than the rest of the year.
Whether you’re shopping in a brick-and-mortar store or online, you should pay attention to your purchases and the impact they can have on your credit score. With a brick-and-mortar store, you have the option of paying in cash, but online, cards are often the go-to choice for making purchases.
Consumers, however, can face all types of headaches if they unwittingly hand sensitive credit card or debit card information to fraudsters. Before you click, you should know whether the site you’re shopping on is a legitimate company selling products that they will ship to you as promised. Or if it’s an authentic-looking site created by a scammer to capture the card numbers of unsuspecting shoppers.
You can minimize the odds of fraud by sticking to encrypted sites (identified by the https at the beginning of a web address) and shopping with trusted retailers. Here are four more ways you can protect yourself this holiday season (and beyond).
You shouldn’t just wait for the site to send you an invoice by email. Instead, when you purchase something, you should take a screenshot of the website, and note the date, time, product, amount and URL.
You shouldn’t wait for the bill to come to you before you follow up on the purchase. You can give the company a day or two, then sign in and review the purchase to make sure it’s for the correct amount (and, if possible, further authenticate that the company has actually shipped your merchandise). If you spot any inaccuracies or unauthorized charges, you should notify your issuer immediately to dispute them and have your card replaced.
Although it can be wise to rotate the use of your credit cards in general (so all of your accounts get used), you may want to limit your credit risk by selecting just one credit card to use for online purchases. If you have multiple cards, doing so can make it easier for you to track your purchases and make sure you are being charged the right amount.
You should review your credit score after the holiday season to make sure that your credit continues to be as healthy as it can be. You should also pull your credit report to help you spot and correct any trouble areas that may have arisen over the holiday season. (Big credit card balances, for instance, can cause your score to drop.)
Monitoring your credit throughout the year is also a good idea since it can help you spot signs your identity has been stolen. You can check your credit reports for free each year at AnnualCreditReport.com and see your credit scores for free each month on Credit.com.
Image: Fuse
April 11, 2023
Uncategorized
September 13, 2021
Uncategorized
August 4, 2021
Uncategorized