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It is inevitable: Your debit card will be compromised some day. What happens when my debit card is stolen?
- Money will be taken out of your account
- Your bank may call you or you must call your bank when you find out
- The Zero Liability Policy will kick in
- The money will be returned to your account in short order
- Any insufficient fund charges will be removed by your bank
- You will be inconvenienced
In this episode five individuals share the experiences of when their card(s) were compromised.
It is not a matter of “if” but “when”
More than 40 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen in a Target data breach and almost 350,000 from Neiman Marcus – just in the past 9 months. Nobody is immune.
My wife and I have had three debit cards stolen in a 2 year period. Convenience stores and a hotel room in Vegas were the odd purchases that scammers used my numbers for – except that it was fraud and the Zero Liability Policies kicked in and took care of the problem for me.
Your card will be hit some day. You can take steps to protect your card like being aware of who you give your card to (waitress, over-the-phone salesmen) and where you use the card (ATM in an unusual place) but you can’t keep it from being compromised.
How to prepare for a stolen debit card
There are things you can do to reduce the damage:
- Set up alerts with your bank. Have your bank text you whenever more than $100 is spent (recommendation by Justin)
- Balance your checkbook (recommendation by Deacon Bradley)
- Have an emergency fund (preferably at a separate bank)
Be prepared – but don’t be worried. This type of thing happens every day. You’ll live through it.
Real life stories from real life debit card holders
In this episode I interview five people who have had their debit cards stolen – some of them had this happen more than once!
How did they find out? What did they have to do? How much did they lose?
Listen to the first 20 minutes of this episode to find out:
Testimonies from:
- Ahmad
- Deacon Bradley from LifeStoked.com
- Justin from Chicago
- Tom Collins
- Keith Bunn from Cav US Financial Coaching
Debt Free Success Story from Tara and Brian
After 20 months Tara and Brian are DEBT FREE! They paid off $33,000 in 20 months and are now saving for a surprise for their boys (shhhh, don’t tell them).
Tara was one of the five lucky winners of the coaching packages I gave away in January 2013. They did the work, stuck to the plan, and used YNAB all the way!
Note: Tara is an extremely talented photographer. She travels all over the country to capture these amazing photos. Unbelievable.
