zlacker

As someone too young to have a credit card in 1995, I’m curious: was its theft more of a “big deal” back then?

My Amex account number was stolen a month ago. It took me three minutes on the call with a rep to get it locked + a new card issued. I think I spent more time and effort on the phone with my dentist later that week.

>>owenma+(OP)
Less fraud protection. I got my first credit card in 1998 and started paying attention.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_and_Accurate_Credit_Tra...

This gave prior anti-fraud legislation more teeth and had a huge impact.

>>owenma+(OP)
I just have to log into my online banking app, click on the credit card, and then slide a lock switch from left to right. A prompt comes up whether I'd like to report it lost or stolen too. If it's just misplaced, I don't have to bother.

>>owenma+(OP)
Credit card number theft isn't so bad today. Having someone cash a fake check from your bank account is another story. You need to close the whole account and lose all your bill pay stuff. All the regular incoming transfers (VA, pensions, etc) have to be updated to a new account. Some of those take up to 45 days to change over. You also have to send a notarized document that the check wasn't from you to the bank and wait for them to restore the funds.

Source: Someone cashed a fake check against my terminally ill father's People's Bank checking account this year and it was a couple months of work to deal with the fallout. Faking a check is absurdly easy and US banks kinda suck at dealing with it.

>>owenma+(OP)
Yes. People were afraid to put their credit card into early websites because they were afraid of theft. It took decades to convince people it was 'safe'. Only thing that makes it safe these days is the fact that now credit card companies won't hold you responsible for the theft. That theft is then offset and socialized by the insanely high APYs.