Summary

A few timely reminders on how to avoid extra charges on your credit and debit cards whilst travelling in euro-land.

Credit Cards Watch out when using your credit card abroad. Page 2

Author: Michael Challiner

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remember, please be especially vigilant about card security whilst abroad, especially if you're travelling in Eastern Europe. Card fraudsters love holidaymakers and business travellers. That's because they're able to enjoy a bit more time with the card before the card is blocked. Chip and pin technology has helped enormously but there are still risks to watch out for. A report we read last week serves to highlight the problem.

Mr & Mrs B were on a weeks' break in Prague when Mr B's wallet was stolen { cheap life insurance } by a pickpocket. It was greatly inconvenient and not a little distressing, but they thought that their chip and pin cards would protect them. Imagine their horror when they returned to the UK, to find that within three days of losing the wallet all their debit and credit cards had been raided for thousands of pounds. How could that happen?

It's a fairly common fraud. A trained spotter had watched and recorded the pin number they used at a cash machine and a pickpocket had followed them from the machine to steal their wallet. Armed with the card and the pin number, the fraudsters were in for a field day. That's because this couple, like 1 in 3 cardholders, used the same pin number for all their cards. Naturally, knowing the 1 in 3 statistic, the fraudsters tried the pin number they knew on all the cards in the wallet. Hey presto, bonanza time!

And yes, it does also happen in the UK.

So, two lessons here. Be particularly careful when entering your pin numbers anywhere - not only abroad. Secondly, don't use the same pin number for all { medical insurance } your cards. Work some way o remembering them. For example, use the first, second, third and fourth digits from each of the number clusters on that card or some combination like that. Or if you have a better memory than me, memorise a pin for each card!

THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING OTHER DEBTS AGAINST YOUR HOME. YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR ANY OTHER DEBT SECURED ON IT. LOANS MAY BE SECURED ON YOUR HOME OR OTHER PROPERTY.