Credit and debit cards are handy tools
for payment. They can be used online or in person, and it’s easy to use
somebody else’s card. In fact, cards often get passed around, stolen, or
otherwise used in ways that weren’t intended, according to www.thebalance.com.
But credit cards are printed with an
authorised cardholder’s name. If anybody else uses the card, the card
user or cardholder faces serious problems.
Fraudulent or unauthorised use is obviously a problem.
If your card gets used without your permission:
Report the problem to your card
issuer/bank immediately. Your card issuer is the company that you
applied for the card with. If you have a debit card, you can contact
your bank. Notifying the card issuer should prevent things from getting
worse, and it maximises your protection under the law. The longer you
wait, the more your liability increases.
Report the unauthorised activity to the
police. To make a claim with your card issuer, you may need to file a
police report and provide a copy of the report. The individual who used
the card may face criminal charges.
Using a card with permission
What happens when you use somebody
else’s card with permission (or you allow somebody to use your card)?
Even with permission, this is against the card issuer’s rules, so the
account holder is breaking the agreement they signed with the issuer.
Most of the time, nobody will notice or
care, but you should be aware that it’s technically against the rules.
When you consider how easy it is to make self-service payments at gas
pumps or online stores, it’s not surprising that cards are often used by
friends, spouses, employees, and others.
If your bank or credit card company
finds out that you’re lending out your card, there’s a chance that your
account will be closed.
Unexpected charges: Lending out your
card is risky. There’s no guarantee that the card will only be used in
the way you intended. It’s hard to recover funds if you let somebody use
your card because the usage was not unauthorised. Banks won’t reimburse
you if somebody drains your account at an ATM after you give them
permission to use your card and the PIN.
Risk for “borrowers”: Using somebody
else’s card is risky. Nobody really knows if you got permission ahead of
time, so the default assumption may be that you’re committing fraud. If
a merchant asks for identification and you can’t provide it, things
might get complicated — the card might be taken away, the police might
get involved, and so on. What’s more, the person who gave you the card
can later claim that you took it without permission (if you spend too
much, for example, or if your relationship sours). In many cases,
transaction records and store surveillance video can be used to bring
charges against you.
Get permission in writing: If you must
use somebody else’s card, which you simply shouldn’t do, at least get a
signed note from the cardholder saying you have permission to do so.
Keep the note tucked away unless you really need it.
If you use the card at a store, the
merchant does not want to know that you have somebody else’s card —
they’re risking a chargeback, and stores stand to lose money unless the
authorised cardholder made the purchase.
Get authorised: Instead of using
somebody else’s credit card or lending out your card, take advantage of
“authorised users.” At an account holder’s request, credit card issuers
will provide additional cards with somebody else’s name. The account
still belongs to the primary cardholder, who is responsible for the
payment, but the authorised user is allowed to use the account. If that
user is asked for identification, everything will match correctly.
Using cards without permission?
When permission is not given, using
somebody else’s debit or credit card is a form of identity theft. Laws
are broadening definitions of what constitutes ID theft, and penalties
for those activities are getting more severe.
In some instances, possession of
somebody else’s card is illegal. Possession of multiple cards — or other
financial tools listed below—can easily bring the crime into felony
territory (if it wasn’t already a felony). In addition to criminal
charges from the state, you may have to pay restitution to account
holders and other victims.
If you’ve got your hands on somebody
else’s cards, you’re playing with fire. It doesn’t matter what you
intend to use the cards for — if you can’t prove that you have
permission, you’ve got problems. That means you can’t “borrow” with
intentions to repay the cardholder, and you can’t even use the card for
benefits that won’t cost the cardholder any money. For example, you
can’t show the card for free access to cardholder events or services, or
use the card to purchase goods that you’ll return before the bill is
due.
Likewise, it doesn’t matter how you got
possession of the cards — if they were sent to you in error or if you
found them on the street, for example, you never intended to steal them.
However, it’s a bad idea to hang onto anything that might make you look
like an identity thief. Drop cards off with local police, the lost and
found wherever you found the cards, or at a bank that issued the cards.
Beyond cards
Debit and credit cards are not the only
way to trigger identity theft charges. Regulations outlaw the
unauthorised possession of any “financial transaction device,” such as:
prepaid cards, bank account numbers and routing information, personal
identification numbers, card numbers (you don’t necessarily need the
card itself), cheques, and money orders.
It may also be illegal to possess
information that can be used for access to accounts and account
information such as: usernames and passwords, social security numbers,
and an individual’s mother’s maiden name (you might know this about
anybody, so the facts and circumstances are important — a spreadsheet
with this information is, of course, more problematic than your casual
knowledge of a friend’s family).
Finally, it’s generally illegal to possess tools for financial identity theft, such as card skimmers and similar equipment.
Source: Punchng
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