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Credit cards can be quite useful but at the same time troubling. There’s a lot of responsibilities to owning one. Aside from the bill, having your credit card stolen can really spell trouble. In case you don’t know what to do, the article below helps…

Stolen Credit Card? Here’s What to Do

It’s happened to almost everyone I know. One minute you have your credit card/wallet/life in hand the next it’s gone. Or you check your credit card statement and realize there are charges on it that you didn’t make. First there’s a moment of panic, and then you leap into action. Although some steps may seem obvious, most people don’t do everything they should to protect themselves after their credit card has been stolen.

Make sure you cover all the bases by taking these important steps:

1. Cancel your credit card. Yes, it may seem obvious but this is the very first thing you should do. Call up your credit card company and explain the situation. If there are fraudulent charges on your card, they will most likely investigate the matter. The majority of credit card companies have fraud protection these days, which means that you aren’t liable for false charges on your card. Check your particular policy to see if you’re covered. But don’t worry, even if you aren’t, the Fair Credit Billing Act states that you’re only responsible for a maximum of $50 of unauthorized charges. And if the loss is just your credit card number, but not the card itself, you have no liability for unauthorized use.

2. Check Your Credit Report. This is to make sure no additional fraudulent activity has occurred. You need to check your credit report at all 3 credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax and Transunion. It’s possible that your stolen card is a sign of a larger issue, and that someone has stolen your identity. If your identity has been stolen, thieves can open credit accounts in your name, apply for mortgages and even use your medical insurance. Carefully reviewing all 3 of your credit reports will ensure that the damage is limited to your individual credit card. Why do you have to review all 3 reports? Because each of the 3 credit bureaus has their own version of your credit history. Lenders and creditors often only report updates (or issues) to 1 or 2 of the credit bureaus and not to all 3. This creates a variance in your reports, so you really do need to look at all 3 of them.

3. Monitor Your Credit History. If you want to be extra careful, you should closely monitor your credit history moving forward. This is because even after you’ve looked at all 3 of your credit reports, changes and updates can occur. Frustrating but true. The easiest and most cost effective way to do this is to sign up for a credit monitoring service. These services will do the work for you and alert you of any changes or updates to your account. They also usually have extra bells and whistles like tools that help you figure out how to improve your credit score. How do you find out what the best credit report monitoring service is? Do some research on your own and check out online reviews.

About the Author:

Tasha Lockyer is an internet marketing professional, working in Silicon Valley for the last 25 years. She currently hangs her hat at NextAdvisor.com, where she lends her online product expertise to many categories, including how to find the best credit report.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tasha_L

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