We've got a couple of charge cards with Citi. That organization is all over credit card security like flies in the barnyard!
When we take a vacation/trip, I call them to let them know when we're leaving, where we're going, the states we'll be traveling through, and when we'll be returning. This helps them track fraudulent use of the card.......and helps to ensure they know our card usage should be considered valid given they have the gist of our itinerary. If we DON'T notify them of our vacation/trip ahead of time, it doesn't take long for them to start flagging/denying charge card transactions of ours.
Having to do this each time we head out of town for an extended period of time can get to be a pain........but here's the payoff:
I got a text and a phone call one morning last week, both from the Citi Fruad Dept. Long story short: There had been three suspicious charges against one of our cards within the past hour, all of which they denied. They called to see if they were charges we'd initiated which they were not. Citi immediately cancelled our card and sent us new ones. They said they'd investigate the source of the problem and get in touch if they needed any other info from us.
I commend Citi for being so diligent about monitoring their customers' charge card transactions. Good peace of mind for us!
As an aside, I haven't a clue as to how our credit card number got compromised. We never use our cards in places, such as restaurants, where the card leaves our sight. Could have been a "skimmer" on a gas station's card reader, info could have been pirated from an internet transaction/company............who knows? But the experience of getting the situation resolved from our end was pretty painless and quick.
Bill
