Yikes...help...my Credit Card Information Has Been Stolen

Chances are they just stole that card information. If they stole you actual identity they wouldn't use the cards you already have, they would open new ones.

On a couple occasions we've had our card number stolen even though the card was in our possession. Most likely stolen by something like a card skimmer or the like.
Both times the credit card company closed the account and opened up a new one for us. Each time we haven't been liable for any charges. Nothing else was stolen either time. I kept an eye on things for a little while but it's all still good. We never closed all other accounts, just the one effected. I never thought I needed to.
It's very likely that they didn't get any other information and your entire identity wasn't stolen, just your credit card information. There are so many ways to grab a credit card number and not have access to anything else.

Take a deep breath. I assume this is the first time this has happened to you? As others have said, it's not too hard for people to get ahold of one of your credit card numbers (without getting any other info about you). All you need to do is close that one account. You'll be OK. I've had this happen about 3 times. It'll probably happen to you again someday, too, no matter what steps you take today.

You can have a fraud alert put on all 3 credit bureaus. This means that if anyone (including you) attempts to open ANY credit in your name, you will get a personal phone call at your home first. This will help in the case that someone has your complete identity. It means they can't get a car loan or mortgage, or something else big without you being contacted to verify yourself first.
Good luck; this JUST happened to me about 3 weeks ago. Not fun.

You don't have to go close your accounts. That can look bad on you.

One of our cards have been compromised several times due to our travel, business, etc. It is nothing for the fraud department to call me and verify a charge, especially if hubby, daughter or I are out of town on business, etc and charge in another state or city.

The card company will close the account immediately and issue you a new card. Then, they will send an affadavit to you to to let them know what charges are not yours and you just fill that out, sign it and send it in. The disputed charges will go away.

Since we are exposed more than the average person, we have fraud alerts on our credit reports. If anyone tries to get credit in our name, we are alerted by phone and asked if we are applying for credit. This is not a big deal for us because we are not ones to be applying for credit so it's no big deal.

You can also put a freeze on your account which takes it a couple steps further. This seemed a little too much in our opinion.

It is nothing to go overboard with worry about, just be smart about your cards, etc. i reconcile our cards and bank daily with business and personal to make sure everything is on the up and up.

Good luck, I know it is scary the first time it happens. There is nothing you can do about the card number being compromised, it can happen anywhere.

All you needed to do was just cancel that card. Just put an alert on credit reports.

Great advice so far.

I would be really careful about closing other accounts....you can massively damage your credit ratings by closing out your other accounts. Did you *switch* the accounts to get new numbers or did you completely close the accounts? Switching the account numbers maintains your credit history with that company and continues the amount of time that you have been with that company (very important things for your credit). Switching the accounts also would keep your credit to debt ratio the same. Closing the accounts will cause you to lose the longevity of working with a company and will lower the $ amount of credit you have (and can thus raise your credit to debt ratio and cause you to look like you're using up more of your available credit then you really are). Not sure if I'm making sense here.... Let's say you are using $1000 out of $10,000 worth of available credit. That means you are using up 10% of your available credit. BUT say you closed one credit care that had a $5000 credit limit. It would now appear on your credit report that you are using $1000 out of $5000, which is 20% of your available credit. Really, nothing has changed with the amount of credit you have used, BUT the closed credit card has lowered your available credit, and thus lowered your credit score.

If you did close out all of these other accounts, I would suggest that you call each of the companies back and explain what happened. See if they can just switch you to a new account number so that you maintain your credit history with them.

Stop closing accounts. Most likely the credit card info was stolen from a company where you used the card in the past. My master card has been hacked a couple times (always still in my possession) and my discover card has been hacked twice. I had a good laugh the last time when the fraud department told me that the number was tried at a plastic surgeon's office in CA, a day spa in CO, an excavating company in MN and a naturopath in IL. Just check your first credit card bill to make sure all the fraud charges aren't on the account and pull credit reports next year to make sure they are clean.

Years ago my now ex sister-in-law stole my Mom's credit card. I was at the house when the call from the credit card company came in and I answered it.I Had to call our local police department,the one where my brother lived and the security department of the credit card company. I was on the phone for over two hours doing all this. Luckily the lowlife was caught with the card and arrested.

Thankfully, your credit card company caught it. Last week I was ordering shoes online and my charge was denied. Within 3 minutes (I was still on the checkout page trying to figure out if I had entered anything wrong) I got a call from my credit card notifying me of possible fraudulent activity. While it was a bit alarming, I figure they are truly looking out for frauds. They were able to see the legitimate charges go through while I was still on the phone with them. I think it's nice that they are looking out for us.
I did have my info swiped at a conference where I bought a book. The company notified me within 24 hours and I got all charges cleared up soon after (and then made arrangements for paying for the book I charged). I get tagged every time I buy a computer, but was surprised to be tagged for a $55 pair of shoes! LOL