There is a difference between banks and credit card companies.
Banks can have credit cards but credit card companies don’t have to be banks. Both entities are regulated by the same government agencies but the rules are different, so there can be a quite a discrepancy in interest rates and qualifications between different lenders, that will effect you as a borrower.
Because of this, the credit bureaus have differentiated banks and credit card companies for credit scoring purposes. Banks can be of high quality or low quality and so can credit card companies.
Debit cards also have some unique challenges in the theft department.
Not so long ago, when cell phones were first introduced with cameras, the big talk revolved around thieves using a camera phone to gather information over people’s shoulders, whether at ATM’s, banks, or anywhere private information could be used.
So, a word of advice: Be cautious when using your private data and be sure no one is close enough to capture your data from you.
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Debit cards seem to be especially susceptible to this kind of capturing because of being directly linked to bank accounts. If a thief can capture your debit card and then your pin, they can take all the money from your account. In some instances, such as purchases for gas, groceries, etc., a thief doesn’t even need your pin number to access your account and spend your money.
Debit cards DO NOT have the safe guard that credit cards have if someone steals your money through them.
There is no way to prove that you didn’t use the card for the services or products yourself. Because of this, banks don’t usually refund money lost as a result of a debit card loss.
It’s important to keep track of your checking accounts, as well, because of the dangers of thieves accessing your checking accounts and writing checks against them.
There are actually companies and personal bank accounts, set up and created by thieves, in order to print their own checks from other people’s bank accounts; the checks are very quickly deposited, the cash withdrawn, and the culprits disappear. This leaves the bank, not to mention all the people they pulled checks from, discovering too late that the company and the checks are no good.
It is difficult to protect yourself from this happening but the good news is that the bank won’t charge you for this theft IF you can show that it was not authorized by you and you take care of the situation in a timely manner.
In other words, balance your checkbook monthly and be absolutely sure all checks were authorized by you.
Once upon a time I used to be against credit monitoring services. But that was before the FBI named Identity Theft as the number one fastest growing crime in America, today.
The more I see the problems associated with Identity Theft and the challenges it causes people, the more I see that a good credit monitoring service could be of definite value.
Because of this, I would like to recommend a company that has been proving itself extremely useful in deterring Identity Theft because of its excellent monitoring service. Of course, there are hundreds of like companies available and I will be the first to admit I have not done an exhaustive search into every one. That said, my personal research shows one company in particular that seems to have the most realistic and reliable credit score in the industry.
The name of this company is Fair Isaac Corporation (http://www.MyFICO.com) and is actually responsible for started the credit scoring system in the first place. (FICO is not part of the problem that created the current credit fiasco such as the 3 big credit bureaus of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.)
The scoring modules that Fair Isaac Corporation has put together are excellent supportive programs if credit bureaus and other credit repair services use them correctly and fairly with the consumers of America. But, alas, most credit monitoring services do not; thus we have a huge failing by the credit bureaus to act fairly for consumers and creditors alike. This failing comes from not verifying information contained as being accurate.
Most credit bureaus do not verify information before including it in into a credit file. Consider that 79% of all credit files include negative information that is incorrect and, of that, approximately 49% is actually costing individual consumers a significant loss of points. And a lot of headaches.
Credit Monitoring Services must be fast, reliable, fair, and accurate; because of this, my recommendation has to be Fair Isaac Corporation.
