Tag Archives: credit card

That Time I Fell for a Scam…

Leave a reply

I made a really stupid mistake just before Christmas.  I pride myself on knowing enough not to fall into financial traps.  And I did exactly that.

I was doom scrolling through social media and came across an ad offering me a too good to be true deal on an electric fireplace/entertainment center.  I wanted it to be real.  It looked real.  So I clicked.  It took me to a web site that looked just like Big Lots.  But it was BigLotsSale.com.  Not Big Lots.  I was convinced it was real.  I really wanted that fireplace. So I jumped.  I put in my info and my credit card and I was off.  I received a confirmation email, so I was sure this was for real.  A day or two later I received an email confirming the shipping.  It was real!  It had to be real!

After a few more days. I went back to the shipping email to click the tracking number and find out when my amazing fireplace would arrive.  And that’s when I figured it out.  The tracking number didn’t lead to anywhere.  I started searching the shipping company and discovered it was fake.  Crap!  I had been duped.  A subsequent search on BigLotsSale led me to discover that this is a very common, yet very well done, scam.  Reddit helped me find all of the painful information.

My first action after discovering my mistake was to lock my credit card.  Then I looked at the charges on my card and found one that I had not made.  I called my credit union and they removed the charge I didn’t make right away.  They canceled my card for me and walked me through the process to dispute the charge that I did make on the fake web site.  Then came the fun of moving all of my automatically billed things to a different card.  Automation is great….until it isn’t.  Then I went out to the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) and put freezes on my account, so the scammers would not be able to open new credit in my name.

I’m actually very lucky.  There is no significant damage caused by my error.  My only potential loss is the $50 charge I made trying to buy the fireplace.  And I may eventually get that back as well.  And I learned a very valuable lesson about buying things through an ad on social media.  I don’t recommend doing it without first researching the “merchant.”  But I also learned how easy it is for people to fall victim to a scam.  I’m very educated in this area and still fell for it.  How easy would it be for someone who doesn’t  focus their life around financial education to make this mistake and have it turn out so much worse?

I’m trying not to beat myself up over this.  It’s done.  I learned something. Everything turned out ok.  This was a very impressive, sophisticated scam.  I’m not a financial idiot…just someone who really wanted an amazing deal on something I really desired.  Technology is scary.  The scammers knew from my online history what would make me jump.  And I definitely won’t be making that mistake again.  A mistake is only a problem if you don’t learn something from it.  And I definitely learned a valuable lesson about shopping from social media ads.

If you have ever fallen for a scam, don’t take it as a personal failure.  It’s not.  It’s an opportunity to move forward with better knowledge than you had before.

Be careful out there.  The internet is a scary place!

 

Chasing Rewards

Leave a reply

I have a lot of credit cards.  I use a lot of credit cards.  And I just applied for another credit card.  For a lot of people this is a recipe for disaster.  But for me it’s a money-saving technique.  Which I know sounds crazy.  But there is a method to my madness.

I am a credit card reward chaser.  I use the cards for convenience and for rewards.  And I pay them off in full every month to avoid paying interest.  Not everybody has this kind of control.  And if that’s you, just stop reading now.  But if you have the self-control to know that you will be able to pay the balance in full every month, keep reading.  Rewards are awesome!  And I have a system of using certain cards for certain things to leverage those rewards to my advantage.

I have a few cards that I keep for single purposes.  My Sheetz Visa, when combined with the My Sheetz card saves me 8 cents per gallon when I fill my gas tank at the gas station/convenience store that is pervasive throughout central Pennsylvania (and several other states).  So when I’m not in the neighborhood of the Bellefonte Rutters that seems to undercut everyone in the area on the price of gas, I use my Sheetz Visa.  And that’s the only thing I use it for.

I have another Visa that is tied to my favorite hotel chain.  I actually pay an annual fee for that card, but in exchange for that I get a certificate good for one night that year in the hotel chain.  I always come out ahead on that deal as I chase my favorite bluegrass bands around the east coast.  And I only ever use that card for hotel stays (where I earn extra rewards for more free nights) and for travel and meal expenses for business travel (to keep that all separate from my personal life expenses).  This card has been sitting very quietly for the time that the pandemic has raged through the world, but it’s ready to come back out sometime in the future.

I have yet another Visa tied to my favorite online retailer.  This card gives me 5% in store credit on every purchase I make.  Especially since the pandemic started, online shopping is a go-to for me, so this credit adds up pretty quickly.  It just makes sense for me.

And I just applied for a card branded by my cell phone provider.  This one is going to reduce my cell phone bill by $10 per line per month by tying my auto-billing to it.  And it’s also going to give me cell bill credit for using it in other places—the big one is 4% back on groceries.  That adds up quickly!

And of course, for all other purchases I have my go-to card which is a 2% cash back card I have through my credit union.  It’s a lot of cards.  With a lot of different purposes.  And I pay them all off in full every month.  The rewards are significant—by using my assorted cards for just about everything I buy, it adds up to quite a bit of money. BUT I PAY THEM ALL OFF IN FULL EVERY MONTH!  That’s the only way this works.  Otherwise you lose all of the benefit to interest.

Do you chase rewards?  If you are the kind of person who has the control to use credit cards for convenience rather than for credit, maybe you should.

 

Lost: One Credit Card

Leave a reply

I lost my credit card two weeks ago.  I had it in my pocket while I was at a music festival.  And then next day I couldn’t find it.  I checked my purse.  I checked all the pockets.  I dug through my camper (that we were staying in at the festival).  I just can’t locate it.  And at the end of the day, this is really no big deal.

As soon as I realized the card was missing in action, I logged into my account on line to check for recent activity.  I found there were no charges that I hadn’t made.  Then I put the account on “pause,” which allows regularly recurring charges to continue but any other charges will be blocked.  This has given me some time to continue looking for the missing card, in case it is just misplaced and not really gone.  The idea of cancelling the card and changing the number everyplace that I have recurring charges is less than appealing, so I want to give my camper one more good overhaul in case it’s hiding in the mattress somewhere.

In the meantime, I’ve been really glad that I have another card that I’ve been able to use instead.  Without a backup card I would have been in a bad place (adulting really seems to require plastic payment these days!).  I’m thinking it’s probably a good idea just in general to have more than one credit card.  Not just because of situations like mine, but because not all places take all cards.  Some merchants will accept MasterCard, but not Visa.  Some will take MasterCard and Visa, but not American Express.  And so on and so on.  I like to be prepared for just about any situation, and having multiple payment options helps with that.

My plan for tonight is to pull everything out of the camper and really search for the card one more time.  If I don’t find it, I’ll cancel it and get it reissued this week.  But luckily, if it really is gone, it’s no big deal.

Budget on Fyre: Are You Floating?

Leave a reply

There was some sort of major sporting event last night that a lot of people were watching on TV.  Since my husband and I were uninterested in the game, we decided to cook up a bunch of football food (my best chicken wings ever!) and settle in front of the TV to watch something we are very interested in:  documentaries about a music festival.

Both Netflix and Hulu are currently running documentaries about the Fyre Festival.  This April 2017 festival was advertised as the ultimate in luxury.  An island getaway for beautiful Millennials. Live music, fancy accommodations and food, excursions, and famous people. The ultimate place to see and be seen.  It sounded too good to be true.  Because it was too good to be true.  It was actually a Ponzi scheme that somehow came to an ugly fruition.  The more money the festival collected from the unsuspecting ticket holders, the more impossible it became to cancel the festival.  Ultimately the festival ended up being canceled after the guests arrived at the island to find FEMA tents with rain-soaked mattresses rather than the promised luxury villas.  There was no real food.  No real infrastructure.  The festival creator Billy McFarland had been spending the next month’s money before it came in to cover last month’s expenses.  When he paid the bills at all.

When I watched last night how McFarland had been spending money before he had it, I couldn’t help but think about how people often live on credit card float.  It’s a simple enough trap to fall into.  You use your credit card to pay for everything (reaping the credit card rewards), and then pay the bill in full at the end of the month.  It seems like you are doing everything right.  But what you’re really doing is falling behind.  You are spending next month’s money on this month’s bills.  And once you fall into it, it’s a difficult cycle to break.  The easiest way to avoid it is never to fall into it.  If you are a credit card reward junkie (like I am) you should make sure you aren’t falling into the float trap by having at least one month’s income in your savings account.  If you aren’t able to restrain yourself in that way, it’s best not to go down the float path at all.  Limit yourself to cash and debit card—forget about the rewards.

People tend to make some really bad decisions about their money.  In the case of the Fyre Festival, Billy McFarland made some really bad decisions about other people’s money (and is now serving six years in federal prison because of it).  Don’t be a Billy McFarland.  It’s best not to float.

Credit Card Benefits: Beyond Rewards

Leave a reply

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of chasing credit card rewards.  But there are other ways to get extra bang for your buck by using your credit card.  In addition to rewards, your card might also offer extra benefits.  It’s not cash back or travel points, but other little perks that your card offers as incentive to use their card.  Common benefits include rental car insurance, travel insurance, or extended warranties on purchases made with the card.  I’ve made good use of a benefit offered by both my Citibank MasterCard and my American Express Card:  pre-sale concert tickets.  (It’s always helpful to have one of each of these cards if you are an avid music fan!).  And another benefit that I had never even heard of until recently just made me change which card my cell phone is billed to.  There are a couple of credit cards (including the Wells Fargo Visa I already happened to have) that offer cell phone insurance if you auto-pay your cell phone bill with that card.

cell phone insurance

I’ve never purchased cell phone insurance.  I’m careful with my phone and keep it in a case, so I’ve never seen the need to protect it with insurance that will cost me a monthly fee to my cell phone provider each month.  But if the insurance is free?  I see no reason not to take advantage of that.  Simply by switching the card I auto-bill to, I was able to pick up $600 worth of protection against damage or theft (but not loss), subject to a $25 deductible.  Do I think I’ll ever need to take advantage of that?  Probably not.  But it doesn’t cost me anything and it does offer me a layer of protection I didn’t have before.

I’m not saying that you should go out and apply for a bunch of different credit cards in order to get these benefits (as a matter of fact…please don’t!).  But if you already have some credit cards (and most people do), it’s a good idea to do a little research into what benefits those cards may offer.  You may find that you have options you didn’t even know about.

Boost Your Credit Card Rewards with Swipe

Leave a reply

This weekend I had the good fortune to meet the creator of an iPhone app that I am completely enamored with.  Swipe is kind of a curator for your rewards credit cards.  It tracks all of your cards and pairs them with the purchase you are making to assure that you are receiving the best rewards deal for that particular purchase.

Swipe Logo

I’m a big fan of leveraging credit card rewards.  Last year I received several hundred dollars in cash back from my credit cards by chasing the right rewards for the right purchases.  This app takes the guesswork out of that process (which is very helpful since one of my cards has higher rewards for categories that rotate from quarter to quarter).

I was lucky enough to have an in-person demonstration with the developer this weekend, but you can see a great demo of the app on the Swipe website.  I’m more than a little disappointed that this awesome app is not yet available for Android (I’m assured it’s coming in the future).  But for the iFolks out there…I think it’s awesome!

Chip and PIN Credit Cards

Leave a reply

Credit cards (and the way we use them) are undergoing a transformation.  By now, any cards you have should have been replaced by a new card with “chip and PIN” technology.  You’ll notice a little square chip on the front side of the card:

chip and pin card

In the future, that chip will always be used instead of the magnetic strip on the back to transfer your card information to the merchant. You insert the card into the bottom of the card reader and hold it there, and the card reader takes your info from the chip.  This is significantly more secure than the old swipe the magnetic strip method.  And eventually, the old procedure of signing for purchase will be replaced by the entering of a PIN number.

And while the card providers have done a good job of issuing the new cards to move toward this technology, the merchants are slow to catch up.  Most places I shop are still using the old swipe and sign method.  And those merchants who do have the new “dip the chip” technology in place (so far I’ve only found it at Wal-Mart and Target) are still using signature rather than PIN….and that isn’t expected to change any time soon.  If you happen to travel to Europe, however, make sure you know the PIN for your credit card.  They’ve been using chip and PIN for years.

The U.S. is a bit slow to catch on to this technology, but in the future it should be helpful in reducing fraudulent card use.  And this ultimately protects you.  Change is hard.  But most times it is worth it.

Leveraging Credit Card Rewards

2 Replies

Credit cards

One of my new years’ resolutions this year was to maximize my credit card rewards.  Not by buying more stuff.  But by being careful about what card I use for what purpose.  For a long time I’ve been using one card that offers me 5% rewards on certain categories that revolve each quarter, and 1% rewards on all other purchases.  But I also have another card that offers me 2% rewards on all purchases, regardless of the category.  And I have an Amazon Visa card that gives me 3% rewards on all of my Amazon purchases, 2% on certain categories, and 1% on everything else.  Plus every time I fill my gas tank at Sheetz I toy with the idea of getting their credit card that would give me an extra 5 cents off every gallon of gas I buy and 5% rewards on the things I buy in their store.  Who knew that the world of credit card rewards–just the cards hanging out in my wallet–could be so complicated?!?

My biggest rewards on my existing cards come from the 5% categories on my old tried and true card.  This quarter those categories include groceries (which I buy all the time), movie theaters (which I do rarely) and Starbucks (which I do almost never).  So I’m using that card for groceries exclusively (next quarter when it flips over from groceries to restaurants, I’ll readjust).  My next biggest reward comes from the Amazon card used at Amazon.com.  I admit that I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon.  So I have that card set up as my go-to card on that web site.  And I don’t use it for anything else.  For absolutely everything else I’ve been using the card that gives me 2% back on every purchase.

It is kind of a lot to keep track of.  Where am I?  What card do I need to use?  But I’m hoping it will pay off for me.  Last year I earned about $600 in cash back rewards…just by buying things I would normally buy and using a rewards credit card to do so.  I’m hoping to exceed that this year…and to spend less money doing so.  We’ll see how well I do with that.

Of course this whole thing would be a moot point if I were not paying my bill in full every month.  Accruing interest would wipe out any savings I would get from rewards.  But I use my credit cards not for credit, but for convenience.

Do you use credit cards for regular expenses but pay them off in full every month?  If so, is your credit card giving you rewards?  If not, you should possibly consider getting a card that does.  If your card is giving you rewards, are they as much as you could be getting?

Help! My credit card has been compromised!

1 Reply

Credit card fraud

It seems like just yesterday that I had to have a new credit card issued because of the Home Depot data breach.  And now my new replacement card has been compromised as well.  Only a month after I finished changing all of my auto-billed payments to the new card, I have to do it all over again.  In the greater scheme of things, I really can’t complain.  I’m still a little stunned by the number of things that went right in my recent credit card fiasco.

The first thing that went right is that I was using a credit card rather than a debit card.  Credit cards offer greater protection against fraud than debit cards.  If this had been a debit card, the money in my checking account could have been tied up while the issue is being resolved.  Because it was a credit card, I can’t be held liable for more than $50 in fraudulent charges.  And I’m extra fortunate because my credit card provider is refunding all of the fraudulent charges.

The second thing that went right is that my credit card provider recognized that an unusual charge had been made and contacted me right away.  Wednesday night I received a text message from Chase asking if I had made a charge for $50 at a grocery store in New Jersey.  I had not.  I called Chase and we went through all of the recent charges, and found (thankfully) a total of only two charges, $108 combined, that were fraudulent.  Chase then shut down that card immediately so no further charges could be made on that account.

The third thing that went right is that I’m very aware of my credit card activity and I monitor it online almost daily.  I had looked through my charges the morning before the fraud occurred, which saved a lot of time on the phone with Chase.  I was able to just say, “Everything through yesterday was my activity,” and we only had to review one day’s charges.

The fourth thing that went right is that I have other credit cards.  I use my Chase card instead of cash most of the time in favor of reaping the reward points.  I like the convenience of using plastic instead of cash.  And when my card was shut down, that could have left me at a loss for a couple of days until my new card arrived.  Luckily, I have another rewards card that I generally only use at stores that don’t accept Visa.  I was able to just use that until my new Chase Visa was delivered.  A backup plan is a very good thing.  I also have another card that I do not keep in my wallet…just in case my wallet is ever stolen.  I always want to be prepared.

I don’t know exactly how my card info was stolen.  My card itself is still in my possession.  I figure it must have been either a skimmer that I didn’t notice when I swiped my card (though I always try to look for those), or it may have been a less than honest employee at a restaurant or convenience store who skimmed the card when it was out of my sight.  Regardless, the result is the same.  I feel somewhat violated because someone stole my credit card information.  But I have experienced no financial loss…only a minor inconvenience.  A lot of things went right for me in a situation that could have been much, much worse.

Good news and bad news from my credit card company

3 Replies

I received two different notifications from my credit card providers this week.  One made me happy.  The other made me a bit frustrated.

The one that made me happy indicated that my Visa card provider was sending me a new card because my existing card was a part of the Home Depot data breach.  So why does this make me happy?  Because I knew I had used my Visa at Home Depot during the affected time period.  I wasn’t exactly sure what my next step should be.  And lo and behold….my card provider was proactive and took care of it for me.  That’s a sign that my credit card company is a good one.  And that makes me happy.

The notification that frustrated me was in regard to my Subaru Rewards Mastercard.  I rarely use this card.  I have it for exactly one reason:  Sam’s Club doesn’t accept Visa.  So most of the time I use the Visa card I talked about earlier.  But at Sam’s Club I needed to have either a Discover or a Mastercard.  I did a little research about what card would give me the best rewards deal, and decided on the Subaru Mastercard.  3% of all of my purchases goes into a rewards account, and when that account reaches $100, I get a $100 gift certificate good for sales or service at any Subaru dealership.  Since I own an aging Subaru Forester, this seemed like a good choice.  But the frustrating communication I received recently said that my card provider is ending their partnership with Subaru and I should expect this card to be replaced by a cash back rewards Visa.  The exact same Visa that I use already.  And that won’t be accepted by the one store where I use the Mastercard.  Frustrating.  And to top it off, I was at $82 on my rewards total, leaving me a small window of time in which to either charge $600 worth of stuff or just give up and lose the rewards I’ve been accumulating.  Frustrating!

As fate would have it, I needed to buy new tires for my car, which turned out to be a $500 expense at Sam’s Club.  So I think I’ll use the Mastercard for groceries this week and meet my required spending to actually receive my gift certificate.  But I still needed to address the issue of future shopping.  I need a new Mastercard.

MasterCard_Icon__500px__Copyright___2007_Titan_Icons

I use credit cards for convenience, not for credit.  I pay these cards off in full at the end of every month.  But to get the most “bang” for my card usage, I like to make sure I’m earning some kind of rewards with my credit cards.  Luckily there are websites designed exactly for the purpose of finding your best rewards fit.  NerdWallet, CreditCards.com, and CardHub are all decent sites to help you find the best card for you, and they helped me find the new card that I needed.

Now I’m not saying that everyone should go out and apply for a credit card.  But it is nice knowing that there are resources available to help you find the one that’s the best fit for you.