These charges were fraudulent. This may or may not affect your ability to pay your bills, buy food for your family, put gas in your car to get to work, and so forth. It could wind up costing you significantly more than just the charges in late fees and a damaged credit rating (which affects everything from loan rates to car insurance payments). These will haunt you for years to come.
There are ways to minimize risks, but it sounds like you're saying to the family of someone murdered "stop being such a cry baby, people die all the time... its just the risk we take for living".
In other words, maybe a little more empathy for the crime victim and a little less blame along with a dash of constructive advice would have been... tactful.
Best advice? If using a visa check card, use a second account. Do not link it to overdraft protection to your main account (or in any other way, such as a "loan" to cover overdrafts at high interest rates). Keep a low balance, using online banking to transfer money as needed into the "spending" account.
Then make sure your bank does not provide a check card for your main of "bills" account. This way, if you ever get hit with a scam you loose a minimal amount.
Case and point. I had such an account, and all the sudden it went from $25 to -$75 due to a fraudulent paypal billing. We contacted the bank first, and they said "oh, that... don't worry, we'll take care of it". Apparently, fraudulent paypal billings are extremely common with my bank. We got the $25 back and immediately closed that account, and since it was totally separate for us it meant that none of our important bills went unpaid (though I wasn't able to get some takeout that week).
The point? The only option is for you to be a smart consumer and figure out how much you are willing to risk at any given moment.
Otherwise, get a real credit card that you pay off every month and gives you virtual account numbers for purchases. That will also minimize risks.
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These charges were fraudulent. This may or may not affect your ability to pay your bills, buy food for your family, put gas in your car to get to work, and so forth. It could wind up costing you significantly more than just the charges in late fees and a damaged credit rating (which affects everything from loan rates to car insurance payments). These will haunt you for years to come. There are ways to minimize risks, but it sounds like you're saying to the family of someone murdered "stop being such a cry baby, people die all the time... its just the risk we take for living". In other words, maybe a little more empathy for the crime victim and a little less blame along with a dash of constructive advice would have been ... tactful.
Best advice? If using a visa check card, use a second account. Do not link it to overdraft protection to your main account (or in any other way, such as a "loan" to cover overdrafts at high interest rates). Keep a low balance, using online banking to transfer money as needed into the "spending" account. Then make sure your bank does not provide a check card for your main of "bills" account. This way, if you ever get hit with a scam you loose a minimal amount. Case and point. I had such an account, and all the sudden it went from $25 to -$75 due to a fraudulent paypal billing. We contacted the bank first, and they said "oh, that... don't worry, we'll take care of it". Apparently, fraudulent paypal billings are extremely common with my bank. We got the $25 back and immediately closed that account, and since it was totally separate for us it meant that none of our important bills went unpaid (though I wasn't able to get some takeout that week). The point? The only option is for you to be a smart consumer and figure out how much you are willing to risk at any given moment. Otherwise, get a real credit card that you pay off every month and gives you virtual account numbers for purchases. That will also minimize risks.