I found it bizarre that I invariably got calls when I vacation in NY, somewhere I visit often, yet when the thieves were buying $16K-worth of jewlery (something I've never done) outside of LA (somewhere I haven't visited in years), the CC company didn't call once. Nor did they phone when the thieves bought three iPads at the Apple store, even though I'd just bought one legitimately in my area using the same card. Granted, there are a lot of transactions occuring at the same time; I just found it grimly ironic.
It would be great if you could customize your own bank alerts for unusual card use, but I bet banks won't like the idea, because of course most people won't bother. I am always worried about my card being frozen while I'm traveling, because my bank's automatic monitoring doesn't think I should be where I am.
I was not prepared for how I felt when I discovered my identity had been stolen. The few banks involved were great to work with. Both the local police and the FBI were fantastic (it crossed state lines), and so was USPS (mail fraud was heavily involved). But I sank into a bit of a depression and felt really used. Not to turn this into an analysis session, but I did feel violated and a bit paranoid. Opening the mail was challenging, and it took quite a while to recover from the emotional damage, even though the financial damage was minimal. In fact, the banks ate all the money these thieves racked up. And the handful companies on auto-pay that I forgot to notify understood when I needed to give them a new CC.
Is there a way to set-up SMS alerts for if your card is used in another state, alerts that you can change if you are traveling? Often, ID theft involves the use of your card in another part of the country or world; knowing in almost real-time that your CC is being used somewhere you're not would curtail illegal use, thereby vastly reducing the amount banks lose. For people who don't frequently travel, this would be a really good use of SMS notifications. I know I, for one, would use it but my bank doesn't offer this as one of its notifications. I do use the "over a specific dollar amount" notification, which would help since most thieves aren't going to steal a card and spend $20 in Walgreens!
" It's a matter of crossing your fingers and hoping."
@kim-I agree...It's just like that trying to reach at the final destination while saving yourselves from that creepy creatures of PAC MAN that engulfed you instantly. It's pathetic when you get to know that you have been hacked and all which you had saved for the rainy days have been transferred to hacker's(creepy creatures') pockets.
SMS alerts will help to reduce fraudulent activities. If the customer misplaced the ATM/DEBIT card, and at the same time if the customer being notified with a transaction alert, it will help customer to understand the card has being misplaced and it has being used by someone else. This can then be informed to the bank immediately. This acts as a good security measure.
Some banks use SMS alerts to send out reminders on customer due's. This will take place, to inform the customer about a Loan due date, Credit Card minimum payment reminders and so on. Further this can also be used to send out promotional updates whenever a promotion take place
Most banks now use the concept of SMS banking. Another aspect of SMS banking is to send out SMS alerts to customers on their transactions. These alerts will be sent if the transaction is more than then the set threshold by the bank. This concept is very useful for customer to keep a track on their day to day transactions.
That's a pretty cool feature and would be something that Chase should actually focus on in its advertising, far more useful than the check-scanning they emphasized in one recent round of TV ads that I recall. I haven't been a Chase bank customer in a long time; I'm in the southeast and they don't have much of a physical presence here beyond credit cards. But this type of capability would make me consider them as my bank since I no longer really need a bricks and mortar bank, thanks to direct deposit and the Internet.
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