<blue>luv2cthings on Apr 22, 09 at 08:34 PM

<I>sigh</i></font>

Your comment follows mine directly. What are you sighing at?

I'm not out to prove anything. And my friend's ordeal happened at least seven years ago. Today, people are more proactive about checking their credit scores (it's often free and encouraged) even if they have no interest in taking out a loan.

Anti-fraud procedures change all the time in financial institutions. Maybe the same thing couldn't happen today, I don't know. But I don't want to test the system either. Criminals always devise new methods for stealing information.

To get the facts straight with regard to my friend, I'd have to bring him in on the discussion. I'm confident he has no desire to revisit the horror.

Robespierre - the post immediately preceding yours, which stated:

<i>"luv2cthings, instead of making fruit tarts, maybe you should do a little research. For one, try Clark Howard."</i>

I guess the <i>sigh</i> was for me. I get that a lot. Plus, I really love a good fruit tart. :-)

There is no way that this type of highly invasive fraud/identity theft could be perpetrated with just a credit card number. Debit cards, yes; credit cards, no. The thief would need a lot more info to change someone's address (which my credit card company and I'm pretty sure all major credit card companies will verify with you by email or snail mail before they make the change anyway).

The only thing that can happen if you are just using your credit card for routine purchases is that someone else will use your card number for purchases. And the fallout from that is only mildly irritating (having to get a new credit card with a different number and changing any automatic charges you might have set up) as opposed to life changing.

Of course, if you leave a stack of neatly printed and nicely organized personal information with your SSN, home address, email addresses, bank and credit card issuer PINS, passwords, and account numbers, etc., sitting around where this credit card thief is also located when he steals your credit card number, then you could have a problem. But I don't carry that sort of information around with me anywhere, let alone on a vacation trip.

A credit card is so much safer than checks or debit cards or obtaining and carrying cash.

Thanks for telling me about the booth in PHL. as I will be traveling through on my way to Rome Still not sure how I will get euros as I arrive in FCO and will have a private cab ride to the cruise port in Civitavecchia. I don't want to stand in a long line to get euros there at the airport. In the US Air terminal is there an ATM close by? Or near the luggage carousel? I will need euros to pay the cab driver. Then we are on the cruise ship 2 days before getting to the Greek Isles. I do need some euros. The other times when I got euros here in the states for other European holidays thru a bank or AAA they were certainly too expensive.

maryanne1, every major airport including FCO will have ATMs readily available in all terminals. Here is a link to some info on FCO:

http://www.worldairportguides.com/ro.../exchange.html

For those that use debit cards for convinience, an effective way of limiting your risk from theft is to limit the amount of money in accounts accessible with your ATM card and checking accounts online regularly. This wont keep someone from stealing your money, just limit the amount that they can access.

I don't make a habit of keeping much money in my checking account and I have a small savings account attached to the checking account - this savings account will cover most overdrafts if I happen to make a mistake. The rest of my money is held in other accounts which are not connected to my checking account or accessible with my debit card. Most of my money is held in a different bank entirely. So, if someone were to get ahold of my debit card number and pin, they wouldn't have access to much money - unless they had the good fortune of stealing my information right when I had transfered money into my checking account to pay the property taxes or something.

This way, the issue would be a minor inconvinience while I got it sorted with the bank rather than a huge issue.