Use Your UK Credit Card Or You May Well ‘Lose’ It!

With each of us in the UK having on average 3 credit cards, it may well be tempting at some point to make your financial affairs easier by just keeping one of the credit cards aside for ‘emergency use’ only. However, having a credit card issued to you which remains practically ‘dormant’, i.e. there’s no use on the card, can be extremely dangerous. In short, you need to be using your UK credit cards or you may well ‘lose’ it.

ID Theft

One of the most common forms of UK credit card ID theft at the moment is to find a UK credit card that is hardly ever used and to run up a huge bill. The reason why this is so popular is two-fold. Firstly, it is highly likely this type of UK credit card account is going to have more of a spending limit than a credit card account that is actively used. Second, more often than not it is going to take the credit card owner longer to realize that a fraud is being activated on their dormant UK credit card because they’ll be less likely to check the account on a regular basis.

Cutting-up the card

Many UK credit card users think that the problems with fraud on their credit card account can be solved simply by cutting-up the credit card that they’re no longer using. Unfortunately, unless you close the account at the same time as you cut up the credit card, a fraud can still be carried out on the card. With access to a telephone and the internet, a UK credit card fraudster does not need actual physical possession of your credit card. So, if you think that cutting up your card will solve these problems, it won’t. Here, it is a growing trend for credit cardholders who have dormant accounts and who thought they cut-up the card years ago to suddenly find that they receive a UK credit card statement with a very large bill indeed – so be warned!

Use your credit card at least once a month

To avoid causing yourself a headache problem of having undetected fraud transactions going through your dormant UK credit card account, you should try and use your credit card at least once a month. This way, your UK credit card issuer will send you a monthly statement and you will be sure to check that statement each month. It’s not even as if you need to make a large payment on the account each month, you could just charge one week’s shopping on the card. Then when you get that month’s credit card bill you simply pay off the statement amount in full and rest happily knowing that no credit card fraud has been successfully made on your credit card account that month.

Today UK credit card fraudster are given ample opportunity to take advantage of UK credit cardholders. Although you may be able to get the money back from the UK credit card issuer, in the end all UK credit cardholders end up paying for the high level of UK credit card

Fraud through higher costs and fees. So try to reduce the number of opportunities that UK credit card fraudsters have to defraud us of our hard earned money but not giving them the chance to fraudulently use your dormant UK credit card account.

More Information

1. Chip and PIN Security For Your Credit Card
   Credit cards just keep getting smarter. In an effort to reduce credit card fraud, the latest family of credit card offerings are implanted with 'smart chips' that interact with special terminals to identify you and secure your purchases
2. Credit Card Fraud Prevention
   In order to prevent becoming a victim of card theft, it does help to keep your cards safe and out of sight of prying eyes. This is good advice as a great deal of UK credit card fraud arises..
3. Identity Theft
   Identity theft is a major issue in the UK, and with good reason. It has been estimated that it can take up to sixty hours of work to recover a stolen identity, and in the worst cases, cost up to £8000 to put right. But what can be dome to prevent this?