I like to use my credit card for all my purchases because I collect points. If I am going to spend the money anyways why not use a system that collects points, right? I never go into credit card debt because I pay it off immediately through the convenience of online banking. The trouble is most people don't watch their credit card statements. Simply getting into the habit of checking your online statements daily or even semi-daily will do two wonderful things. First, you are much less likely to go into credit card debt and pay the high interest rates or other fees. Second you can catch credit card fraud much earlier.

            I go down to Peg's Kitchen in Regina once or twice a week for lunch. They have good homemade-style food at good prices and it's just down the street. However, they don't X-out the numbers on my credit card receipt or on their till receipt. This is really bothersome to me because not only do I have to take extra care in the shredding and disposal of my receipt, but now all employees of Peg's have my credit card information. So, at Peg's I only pay by cash now (which probably makes them happy because they don't have to pay as many fees), but Peg's isn't the only place that still does it and how do we know before we buy? Normally I wouldn't put their name in here, but I am purposely calling them out and asking them to change it. I think it should be a law that places of business have to X-out part of the credit card number on all till receipts, but since it isn't I hope most places will do it voluntarily. Most POS machines have a way to do it by changing the settings, so it shouldn't be a matter of cost.

            There must be hundreds of establishments out there that have my credit card information. Hotels, restaurants, retailers, service providers; the list is long, but I feel confident I won't go through too much pain if someone did start using it fraudulently because I monitor my accounts. The credit card companies are also good at spotting irregular behavior and will often notify you, but this isn't the point. I don't want to ever have my information compromised; I don't want to have to work retro-actively to recover costs, it shouldn't happen in the first place even if I do get all my money back. I want to collect my points and not have to order a new card every six months because they say it might be compromised.