Argh!! CC number stolen while on trip!

[Karenj2]

Apparently our credit card number as stolen at some point (not necessarily from our pop century stay), and now we have to use a different CC number to get home & pay bills. Argh!!

 

[Cruise]

Did you have a car?

I seem to remember there being a story last year about police finding skimmer devices on several gas pumps at several different gas stations in the Orlando area.

 

[jking6]

I had this happen to me last August on a Virginia trip. I now check my account balance every 2 to 3 days when at home and only use one card on vacation and check that daily with my phone.
These people need to start making an honest living!!!!
Sorry you had to go through this...

 

[ssawka]

Sorry this happened to you, but unfortunately it happens all the time. Not much you can do about it. Fortunately you are not responsible for the charges. This is why everyone should have more than one CC. Unfortunately, your unlikely to ever know where it happened. We trust so many people with our CCs that any one of them can take down your number.

 

[kate2961]

This happened to us while we were staying at AKV. Instead of using our KTTW card we used our CC to pay for our meals, etc.

We only had two CCs at the time and I really didn't want to use the second one for the hotel bill.

We were able to get the new card FedEx'd and we were able to settle the hotel bill on the last day.

My experience taught me that there is a huge benefit to using the KTTW card. I now use that instead of my CC while in WDW.

I also learned that I need to keep at least one extra CC with appropriate credit limits as a backup that we never use except for emergencies. We don't walk around with that one. We keep it in the hotel safe.


- Kate

 

[mel&me]

Few years back I had this happen. Caught it quick, I called before We left to let CC company know we were in florida, but also set a limit that if any single charge went above, they called my cell. Within an hour of me getting gas, call came in. Shut it off and used another CC that I brought. Whoever had it, tried 3 more times to use it after I shut it off, thought they might catch them, was all online stuff, never got caught.

 

[NotUrsula]

Your CC company should be willing to Fedex another card (with a new number) to you overnight at the resort. Have them send it C/O the hotel's guest services manager, and he/she will let you know when it arrives. Hotel managers have experience with this; it unfortunately happens fairly often to folks who are on vacation.

If you are using a rental car, be sure to let them know what has happened. Otherwise you will have issues when the final charge for the rental tries to go through and is rejected because the Credit card has been canceled. (Not a fun thing to have to deal with when you are in hurry to catch a plane.)

 

[disneydeal]

I usually use cash... but on a few occasions i'll use a CC.. anyways I had my card info stolen twice in the past 6 months both times after using at a gas station that I normally don't go too...and both times on different CC numbers cause CC company caught it, froze account and called me....so what happened is like 2 days later after that station usage I got hit..with walmart.com purchases with my info..< thief buying stuff with my card...

 

[mcraft17]

Ok, so I have never had this happn to me yet.. thankfully. But my question is, is it better to go inside the gas station to pay with a cc than use it at the pump? We are driving this time to Florida and would love to try and possibly keep this from happining. I will definitly use the tip about using our key to the world instead of the cc.

 

[mommycrawford]

I had this happen with my Disney Visa, which I never take with me (because of high limit) except to Disney. Last year, due to hurricane delay, I had to use it to add hotel nights....Did not use it otherwise!

I REALLY LIKE American Express travellers checks! I know it is old fashioned, but you can cash them at the hotel as needed, and use them for your tips at restaurants (they cash them too!) Great customer service, and they replace them if needed, and like cc, they are covered!

 

[Colleen27]

Ok, so I have never had this happn to me yet.. thankfully. But my question is, is it better to go inside the gas station to pay with a cc than use it at the pump?

Yes, always. The common scam with gas pumps is the installation of a secondary device inside the pay-at-the-pump card scanner that steals your CC info, and seems to be much more common at stations like those along turnpikes/major highways that cater to travelers who are less likely to be keeping close tabs on their accounts while on the road. Paying inside is safer by far.

http://money.msn.com/identity-theft/buy-gas-get-card-data-ripped-off-indexcreditcards.aspx

 

[dzorn]

Yes, always. The common scam with gas pumps is the installation of a secondary device inside the pay-at-the-pump card scanner that steals your CC info, and seems to be much more common at stations like those along turnpikes/major highways that cater to travelers who are less likely to be keeping close tabs on their accounts while on the road. Paying inside is safer by far.

http://money.msn.com/identity-theft/buy-gas-get-card-data-ripped-off-indexcreditcards.aspx

Not necessarily. Inside could also have a card reader installed by a employee.

Denise in MI

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I REALLY LIKE American Express travellers checks! I know it is old fashioned, but you can cash them at the hotel as needed, and use them for your tips at restaurants (they cash them too!) Great customer service, and they replace them if needed, and like cc, they are covered!

I do not recommend travelers checks. A lot of places won't take them, both in the US and overseas. In this day and age, they have been replaced by ATMs.

 

[Free4Life11]

What exactly do these skimmers look like and how would I tell if one is installed on a gas pump or ATM?

 

[sissy_ib]

My DHs debit card was "compromised" on our way to WDW in January. We stayed in northern Florida visiting family for a few days first and we got the call from his bank on the drive to WDW. We are pretty sure it was at the gas station near the hotel. There were no charges made and BoA Fed-Ex'ed a new card. The only thing was the Contemporary charged us a few dollars for having it delivered there.

 

[dclfun]

This happened to me last year during our stay at AKV's. Funny thing is that it was not the cc we had on file. Someone tried to use my other cc for charges at American Eagle. AE actually called me to say they thought my card had been compromised- there's no way I'd ever have ordered enough for either of my ds's as what the thief tried to get away with. I called Wells Fargo and they issued a new card. The charges had never gone through, thankfully. I hate scammers and thieves!

 

[Stitch_Dude]

Another option, if you know some of the gas stations brands you would likely use, is to purchase pre-paid gas cards at the grocery store or Target/Walmart etc. I usually grab Shell station cards at Publix when they run a promo and only use those cards, in full, at the pump. It was one of the first things local friends of ours warned us about when we moved to the central Florida area a few months ago.

 

[disneymomjcs]

A friend of mine was in WDW in August 2011 with her girls. They stayed at Pop Century and never went off site used Magical Express. The week after she was home she got a call from her Bank it was a Debit Card/Credit Card askin if 1) she purchased $15 at Target in Springfield, Pa then a few hours later 2)if she purchsed like $700 at Walmart in Orlando, Florida. Yikes no....they cancelled and reissued a card but it took a month for them to put the money back in her checking account! They were investigating it for a while. She told them about her trip and the dates she was away.

 

[Karenj2]

Hi all! I apologize for not following up... We were able to get home with no problems because we have a second (backup) card. Since we got notification the day before we were leaving, we figured it'd be easier to just have them send it to our home instead of FedExing it to the resort.

We didn't have a rental car (so didn't go to any gas stations), and we didn't even use it at the parks until that last day. The only place I had it out during our trip was at the airport & to put on file at the hotel. However, I've been thinking about it, and we also had a hotel stay in Pittsburgh the week before (for a funeral), so it could have been "stolen" then. Apparently they had a physical card for the purchases in CA.

Chase already removed those charges from our account (although one just popped up yesterday), so I think we're good at this point. Luckily, I think it was noticed quickly because of the charges in both FL and CA on the same day.

 

[nowellsl]

What exactly do these skimmers look like and how would I tell if one is installed on a gas pump or ATM?

They're really hard to detect apparently. Most gas pumps now have a piece of tape (usually red) put over the key hole in the cover that these thieves are opening up to install the skimmer. If you see a piece of tape and it looks like it's been altered or removed in any way, don't use the pump. They're also targeting pumps that are on the outer edges of the stations, that aren't easily seen by the clerk inside the store. I try to always use the ones directly in front of the window. We had several found in my town not too long ago!