Identity Theft and Credit Cards

[Callie]

I've been fretting about identity theft lately - we've been a part of a couple of those situations where masses of people were affected by some sort of breach or other - and I've been wondering what people do these days traveling abroad.

We've never had a problem using our debit cards, but I'm thinking about opening an account at a new bank, depositing enough money to take care of an emergency and our expenses and using only that account for travel. We use our American Express cards and another bank card (VISA) if necessary, but on our last couple of trips, we've tried to use only cash. Fortunately our bank doesn't charge when we use our debit cards at other banks. And when we get the bills after the trip, they don't cause palpitations.

How do you protect yourself without being ridiculous? The last thing I need is another bank account/debit/credit card.

Callie

 

[Pauline]

We use our US debit card to get cash at ATMs and pay for nearly everything in cash. The debit cards we use are with a bank where we keep a limited amount of money - just like you are thinking of doing @Callie .

Since we stay in vacation rentals, they are usually paid for ahead of time, but if we have to pay for accommodations, then I use a credit card. But in shops and restaurants we try to use cash. I worry about credit card info being stolen.

We also go over what cards we will take with us and leave some at home. We take a photo of the cards we are taking leaving a copy at home and one in the cloud so we can get the information if we need it.

 

[Callie]

Thanks, Pauline. I think I'll go the not much money checking account route, and that will be our only account with that bank. What Cloud service do you use? I just discovered the joys of Dropbox and realize how behind the times I am. I worry about security with the cloud stuff too.

As an aside, my sweet husband gave me a real scanner (ScanSnap) for my birthday and I've been working on going paperless. For Christmas I got not one, but two, external hard drives. He is such a romantic.

Callie

 

[Pauline]

What Cloud service do you use? I just discovered the joys of Dropbox and realize how behind the times I am. I worry about security with the cloud stuff too.

I use Microsoft OneDrive for my cloud storage. We have a lot of space in our accounts because we subscribe to MS Office and Steve bought a Surface computer, so we got more then.

I use Amazon Cloud to store backups of my photos. We have Amazon Prime for streaming movies and they give you unlimited cloud storage for photos (only photos, no docs, no video), so I uploaded my thousands of photos just to have an extra backup.

 

[Pauline]

As an aside, my sweet husband gave me a real scanner (ScanSnap) for my birthday and I've been working on going paperless. For Christmas I got not one, but two, external hard drives. He is such a romantic.

Those are the kind of gifts we give to each other too. It is wonderful to have so much paperwork digital now. Easier to deal with and to find things.

 

[artnbarb]

I'm not as tech savvy as some, but I have discovered that Dropbox can be helpful for sharing info among different devices. I can access a copy of our passports, or even a prescription for glasses. I learned that I have to save the documents as a .doc rather than the .ods that Apache's free WP software, OpenOffice uses because my cell phone can't read the .ods file! There are just so many things like that, and I'm overwhelmed!

 

[Callie]

I never thought to put my glasses prescription in Dropbox - what a great idea. I'm lost without my glasses and losing or breaking them on a trip would be disastrous.

Yeah!! Something else to scan!!

 

[Pauline]

I use Microsoft OneNote to keep track of a lot of things - household notes, recipes, knitting, website notes. The data file is kept on OneDrive, so it is in the cloud, and I can access it from my phone, iPad or computer. It all syncs - so if I make a change on my iPad, I see it on my computer. I used OneNote years ago, then switched to Evernote (which is also good), but now switched back to OneNote.

I can type in notes, copy in web pages, insert PDFs from things I scanned, etc.

I don't put my passwords in these docs but instead have a code that tells me what password I used. For example, if I put thebestcat for a password, I know the password is Buddy (not a real example ).

This works well for traveling - I can get at all kinds of information. But then you have to make sure you have your phone and iPad set with a password, so someone can't read all your info.