12/03/2024

3 Ways Your Credit Card Protects You From Identity Theft

AOL

It's hard to keep your personal information private anymore. Even if you do everything right, there's always the possibility that hackers steal your information in a data breach. There were 3,205 data breaches in 2023, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

When you think about tools to protect yourself from identity theft, a credit card probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But credit cards have a few key features that could help in this situation.

1. Free credit monitoring

A credit monitoring service keeps track of the activity on your credit file. It also alerts you about any changes or suspicious activity. For example, credit monitoring would typically notify you about any of the following:

• New credit applications

• New credit cards and loans opened

• Balance increases and decreases on your credit accounts

• Credit score increases and decreases

You could then check whether you were responsible for that activity or if it's fraudulent. For example, you get an email alert that a new credit card was opened in your name. If you didn't open a card recently, you'd know that someone else stole your identity, and you could report it to the bank that issued the fraudulent card.