Check Your Credit Card Bill

Posted by: Sophie H. | Apr 01,2008


Here’s a cautionary tale.  A woman at a retirement home had her credit card stolen and used for $2400 in charges.  The reason that she knew the charges were fraudulent was because she hadn’t used her card that month.  

That’s easy enough to spot, but you could very well imagine someone not checking a credit card bill at all if the credit card had not been used.  Let this be a lesson that you should check your credit card bill regardless of your activity on the card for the previous month.  Not using the card doesn’t get you off the hook.  If anything, it makes your job easier because you don’t have to weed through the legitimate charges to see if there has been anything fraudulent.

Many people couldn’t even conceive of not using their credit card during a given month.  But this is the case for a lot of people – especially for older retirees who are not very active.  If you do or don’t use your credit card, you need to check the charges on the bill and make sure that everything is at it should be.

It’s important to remember that experienced identity thieves will put small charges on a credit card, rather than rack up thousands of dollars on one card.  The reason is simple: high charges can be easily spotted.  An identity thief would much rather have use of your card on a monthly basis, so it’s not uncommon for an identity thief to put relatively small charges on a card in the hopes that you will not catch these charges.  So don’t just look for a spending spree, look for any sign of suspicious charges.  And if you don’t use your card that month, this is not a license to throw the bill right in the trash.  You need to monitor this bill as well.  

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