Ask Slashdot: How Do You Keep Your Credit Card Secure?

It's easy to pontificate about the best security practices -- but the real test is what we do with our own money. Long-time Slashdot reader Keybounce writes: So, like most of you, I recently got a new credit card with a chip in it. I was not worried about that -- I know the chips are harder to copy and counterfeit. But I recently discovered that the card is also a radio card -- swiping it near the screen caused an message to show up on the reader. In this case, it told me to use the chip reader instead, but this means it has an active radio signal, and could be "hacked" -- stolen by someone with the right device.

How can I prevent this? Is there anything I can do that will disable the radio signal and still leave the chip functioning?
At least 200 million RFID credit cards were in circulation by 2012, even though their signals could be easily intercepted, prompting the introduction of RFID-blocking wallets and sleeves. But what's the alternative? A recent article in Quartz argued that America's transition to chip cards has been an utter disaster (since the banks dispensed with PIN numbers altogether and now validate with only an electronic signature). Is the answer to just use a mobile wallet like Apple Pay or Android Pay -- or to always pay with cash?

So leave your own answer in the the comments. How are you keeping your own credit card secure?

Comments

Don't care, not my card, card issuer's problems.

[Anonymous Coward]

I could care less. If I see fraudulent transactions I call AmEx and I get a replacement card next morning. No need for me to go out of my way to keep a card that provides access to someone else's money secure.

Re:Shielding, jamming

[ArmoredDragon]

I wouldn't even fret over it at all, and indeed those little sleeves are a total waste of money.

Current credit card laws limit your liability for fraudulent transactions to $50. But that's not all: Every bank that isn't shitty takes that a step further by making you liable for nothing at all. Really, I haven't even seen a credit card offer that has a non-zero liability clause. I'm sure they exist, but you'd have to have downright awful credit to have one of them as your only option.

That said, a much bigger risk (indeed by far the biggest risk) of getting your credit card information stolen is when you use it to buy something on the internet and the merchant's PCI database is compromised. This has happened numerous times to me, by the way, and you know what it has cost me in my entire lifetime? Not a single red cent.

Typically it goes like this: My bank calls me and notifies me that somebody all the way on the other side of the country in a state that I've never been to tried to buy something expensive on my card within minutes of me buying chips from a vending machine. Obviously something wrong there, so they call me and list the most recent 5 or so transactions and ask me if I made any of them. If the answer is yes, then there's no problem. If the answer is no, they deactivate my card and send me a new one, and have me fill out a form telling them which transactions showed up on my bill that are ones I didn't make. I just tell them which ones aren't mine, and they simply remove them from my statement.

That's it, no problems. The only inconvenience is that I'm out of a credit card for a few days, but that's ok because in addition to my mastercard that I use practically everywhere, I also have an Amex card that I occasionally use for its occasional incentives, and I can continue using it until my new mastercard arrives in the mail.

No need to waste money on a sleeve, and no need to have to pull it in and out of the sleeve when I need to use it.

Re: Easy

[slashrio]

The moment the cashless society is a fact you will regret that you didn't fight it.