#29. Identity Theft Protection Using Prepaid Debit Cards
These days the credit card is as normal as the computer. In fact these days the credit card makes the computer shopping experience more useful. You can now purchase just about anything online that you can find offline and have it shipped directly to your home, usually within days, not weeks of your purchase.
Prepaid debit cards are still pretty new but the concept is catching on very quickly. In a world where identity theft is becoming very serious people are searching for a better way to secure their purchases without having to give up their identity, or rather risk identity theft.
The prepaid card is a great innovation that helps to solve this problem by allowing people to make purchases online anonymously. The card works exactly like a debit card but you are not required to attach any real information such as your name or address to the card.
Many people are purchasing these cards exclusively to shop online anonymously and to protect themselves from fraud. When your identity is stolen you often have to go through a lot of uncomfortable hoops to restore your credit and in many cases you cannot get your money back.
With the prepaid card you can use it once and throw it away and not worry about repeat billing. Since no real information is connected to the card you don’t even have to worry about shredding the card or it getting into the wrong hands because with no money on it the card is useless. You can even call and have the card number deactivated as well.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone use their bank card for online purchases, there is simply too many cleaver theft potentials there. Using your bank card in stores is usually safe, but online is a whole new ball game. Prepaid cards are the greatest thing to come to the internet scene since online shopping became convenient.
You can shop with confidence and you can even track your cards spending online without having to give any information as well other than the card number. If you want to protect your spending history calling to get the number/card deactivated will delete the spending history from the site as well. The sites are secured so they are not indexed in search engines.
The beauty of the prepaid debit card is that you can purchase them just about anywhere and activation is cheap. Many will not charge an activation fee if you put a certain amount of money on the card. At Wal-Mart you can get a free card if you cash your check there, they give you a green dot card, and you don’t have to put your check on the card, you can put 20.00 on the card and cash the rest of your payroll check into cash. This is a great way to get your card without paying a fee and you can get a new one every payday.