Protect You're A$$ets

Pardon the headline pun, but I wanted to gain your attention for a serious discussion about protecting yourself. Credit card fraud is on the rise and so is identity theft. By now, we all know someone who has had a horrible experience in this arena.

Last year, I wrote about how to lock and freeze your existing credit cards to help you avoid identity theft and others opening financial accounts in your name. If you haven't done it, DO IT NOW!

Today, let’s address other bad things that can happen with credit cards online and create a strong defense against it. In particular, new phenomenon consumers are facing is the inappropriate or unauthorized use of their credit card by a company. This can take the form of outright charging for a service or product you didn’t get or a recurring monthly charge that you can’t stop no matter what legitimate methods you’ve tried. How many of you have experienced a company charging an old credit card number and the charge being applied to your new number. Here’s how you make it end.

I recently discovered a freemium online service at privacy.com. This service allows you to create virtual credit card numbers that deduct directly from a specified bank account. At first blush, this may sound more like a debit card, but when you realize what you are really getting is complete privacy, it quickly becomes your invaluable superhero online.

As an example, you sign up for a gym membership online and they tell you they will bill you monthly until you cancel the membership. (We all know gyms are notorious for not allowing you to ever quit). So, you create a virtual credit card that only allows that card to exist for 6 months and set a maximum charge amount of $40/month. Now, if the gym tries to charge you a penny over $40, the charge will be denied. And, on month seven the card is no longer valid. Period. You retain complete control! And remember, the card doesn’t even have your name on it, so there is complete privacy.

Another great example is you find something unique and secure you want to buy online, but it is from a website you aren’t sure you can trust. Will they steal my credit card info? Will they charge me more than I want? Simply create a privacy.com credit card that is specific to that website and is a one-use card. Yes, you can create a “burner card”!

Not only do you gain private control of your online spending with privacy.com, you also get some pretty great tools! The website shows you all your online spending and subsequent charges, broken down by vendor or virtual card. Also, privacy.com has plug-ins for your browser so you can quickly auto-fill any cart checkout boxes with your appropriate credit card by just clicking on the P icon that appears in the credit card number box.

The best part of privacy.com is that for most users, it is completely free! On top of that, if you use this code <privacy.com/join/CP8HV> you will get $5 back on your first use of a virtual credit card. I’ve been using this service for about 6 months now and it has been flawless.