Target Security breach - credit and debit cards

It is not as simple as cash vs plastic.  The security breach at Target has many shoppers worried and questioning these security breaches continue to happen and appear to be more grandeur size.  Instead people should be asking what can one do as an individual to minimize such vulnerabilities.  It is not enough to throw it all at the retailers – we, the consumers have made the choice to use plastic instead of cash.   Now I am not saying that the retailers are not obligated to provide an environment as close to secure as possible, where we can shop with minimal worries. For we have, for all intents and purposes, been courted, cultured and nurtured by the same retailers into using plastic.  The convenience of plastic has become sealed into our very being.  But the convenience cuts both ways and therein lies the conundrum.  

 Those of us who are “old school” have held onto using cash and are now patting themselves on the shoulder for not having opened themselves up to the anxiety 40 million shoppers are experiencing today.  Little about the perpetrators is known as yet.  We wait with baited breath as the Secret Service investigates.  For the shoppers themselves none of the above is really important outside from some significant punishment being metered on those who carried it out.

It is important for the 40 million people who are at the heart of this to put into practice simple checks and balances to either keep a close look on the activity of the related accounts.  Some will quickly jump to closing the account opening a new one effort to lessen the anxiety.  It is not every breach that we hear about and therefore our vulnerabilities are there every day.  

In some instances the organizations offer basic credit monitoring but according to the reports when date is stolen in the manner that it was in the Target case fake credit cards are made.  This is why it is essential to monitor your accounts.  

Good practice:

1.  Review your credit statements or bank statement for those using debit cards.

2.  Review your credit card account policy, specifically identity theft coverage

3.  Signing up for alerts is also an option offered by many financial institutions.

4.  If you do decide to close the account and replace it be sure to update all automatic transactions linked to the card being replaced