Posted on 01/10/2014 10:12:25 AM PST by John W
The massive credit card heist at Target stores across the country was nearly twice as large as previously revealed, with the retailer saying at least 70 million customers were hit -- making it one of the largest security breaches of its kind.
The newly disclosed victims included customers whose data was obtained by Target prior to Black Friday.
The company said Friday that as part of its ongoing probe it found that some customer information, apart from the 40 million payment card accounts previously disclosed, was stolen during the data breach. It said this is not a new breach.
The stolen information includes names, mailing addresses, phone numbers or email addresses for up to 70 million individuals.
What irritates me the most about it is that Target was going to remain silent about security breach until a blogger got a tip, investigated the news, and put it on the web. Even then Target wouldn’t confirm the info at first until it went viral. They were thinking only about their holiday sales and the ONLY thing they offered as a percentage off to everyone who shopped over a subsequent weekend.
Since when does a credit card have this much info? The article sounds bogus.
No they don't, they would prefer you carry a balance so they can charge you interest every month in addition to the 3-5% they charge the merchants for everything you buy.
Credit cards today offer so many benefits with no fees its hard to imagine using a debit instead, unless you cant get credit cards at all due to credit problems (that happened to two of my relatives)
A Few years back I used to have to travel long trips every 4 to 6 weeks and I loved those $200 to $300 bonus checks from Chase MC every ~ 10 months.
Now they have continuous double point specials, this quarter its gasoline.
“It’s a small, local bank, and I do check my activity every morning during breakfast.”
With online banking? Most people who do online banking use the same computer they use for everything else, including the web. That is a big risk. If you’re going to do online banking it is best not to use a Windows computer, and don’t use that computer for anything else. It should be a computer dedicated solely for banking.
No such problems with good old CASH. Here’s your sign!
One in five of the entire country. Ouch. My bet is nobody is prosecuted for this, but they should be. And Target should be bankrupt. This is gross malfeasance.
LOL, One of my relatives who paid CC interest for years tried to tell me that years ago, recently he had to give up his credit cards for debt consolidation.
Perfect example : Back when I traveled frequently I once misplaced a bill and Chase charged me both interest and a late fee (owch!)
I immediately paid the entire balance with bill pay and then called them a few days later and politely and calmly asked them to refund BOTH to my account (remove both charges from my balance) .
Chase reply “No problem.Is there anything ELSE we can help you with?”
I answered : “No, but I love my chase”
Hubby was also just advised by our bank to not have our accounts linked. Previously, banks recommended you link your savings and checking accounts together in case of over draft and to make transfers easier. Or if you had multiple accounts, link them together to make them easier for you to track, funds could roll easily from one to another, etc. Now, they’re recommending you not have any accounts linked together, so if one account is compromised, the thief can’t drain them all. Lowers your risk, but the bank’s as well.
What percentage of online bankers would you estimate do it exactly as you recommend?
Don’t you find it ADORABLE?
I love the cash rewards, plus, I don’t even wait til I get my statement. Once the charge shows up online, I make a payment.
Haven’t made an interest payment since 2008 (only because I put my father’s entire funeral on my card, and even then I paid it off in 3 months).
They should call it a McDonald’s card, because I’m lovin’ it!
You’re kidding me, right? Do you have any idea how much personal info is in that magnetic strip on the back of your card? You’d be amazed. Yes, name, addy, phone, email, are all there, and that’s just child’s play. It will also have the security code, what you’re recently purchased, and tons more. It’s a scary world.
They call people like me who pay off every month "freeloaders".
I came up with different approach.
I set auto-bill pay to pay my two chase cards bills automatically some nominal amount a week before the monthly due date, my typical average bills amaount, then each month when I get the bills I update the amounts (actually one chase I only use for periodic billing so its always the same), so that way I will never get a late fee even if the mailman loses my bill and I forget.
Had a Citibank MC for years and years. Never used it, except for unusual things. I have a different card that’s my primary. About 4 years ago, I got a letter that they were going to start charging me a $60 a year fee to “improve service.” It didn’t take me 30 seconds to be on the phone with them to cancel the account. The rep. tried to tell me that if I would just charge $2000 a year to the card, they’d “rebate” me back my $60. I told her that was extortion and to look at my record to see I never used the card. I think they were trying to drum up business. I just closed the acct. and never looked back.
Maybe because it happened because NSA was gathering info.
Probably because you never used the account you cost them money. It made sense for them to do that I bet.
I recall in 2009 some on FNC and many here were claiming that the banking reform bill would lead to the CC companies charging monthly fees again like in the 1980s.
I poo-pooed that claim here on thread after thread here relative to below.
They know better than to try that with LadyBuck and me.
We use our cards regularly AND we pay it off every month on time.
That puts us in charge. They know better than to charge us a fee. We are like a King and Queen to them LOL
I have one card that I use regularly and others I only keep open for "emergencies".
I never tell anyone it’s a CC, it’s not, it’s a debit card.
The money is withdrawn from my account in minutes of using it at most merchants, although some take several days. The immediate withdrawal is a benefit in my eyes. I changed banks to get that feature.
If I want delayed withdrawal (payment really) I use a CC.
If there is a discrepancy, I can contest it the same way I contest a CC mistake.
Chuckle.
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