*This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of CHASE. The opinions and text are all mine.
We are down to the wire here in New York City when it comes to back to school shopping and preparing for school to resume next week. I’m so grateful for online shopping because it allows me to purchase the majority of the kids’ supplies from the convenience of home. I’ll also be shopping in-store this week for some of the items that I was unable to buy online.
Since I had my identity stolen a few years ago, I always worry about being a victim of fraud or having my financial information compromised. CHASE’s Financial Education Partner, Brittney Castro, has some great tips for how you can protect yourself and avoid fraud during busy shopping times like back to school.
Some of Brittney Castro’s smart shopping tips are:
- Shop at well-respected and trusted retailers both online and in-store.
- When shopping online only shop at secure retailers whose URL begins with “https” instead of just “http.”
- When shopping in-store, avoid swiping your credit or debit card if you can. Electronic CHIP readers are more secure.
- Avoid making online purchases on public WiFi networks because they are not encrypted to secure your personal information.
- Strengthen your online passwords using a combination of numbers, letters, and symbols.
- Change your online passwords every 30 or 90 days.
Brittney’s tips were very helpful to me while I was shopping this back to school season. I had no idea that retailers with URLs that begin in “https” have more secure websites. Also, many of my current credit card carriers have sent me card replacements that include the secure CHIP so I feel more confident when I use them while shopping in-store.
By using a little common sense along with the advice of CHASE and its Financial Education Partner, Brittney Castro, you can avoid becoming the victim of fraud this back to school shopping season. For more tips on how you can protect yourself, check out the CHASE Fraud video and also visit chase.com/fraudsecurity.
Let’s Discuss: What are some of the ways that try to avoid fraud and identity theft when you are shopping online or in-store?
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of CHASE. The opinions and text are all mine.
© 2016, Tough Cookie Mommy. All rights reserved.
Thanks for the advice! Having your identity stolen sounds horrible! I didn’t know that public Wifi networks aren’t totally secure for purchases so that’s super helpful!
Chase has the best CC protection. Im a huge fan!
I have a Chase card and they’ve been great to me. They’ve alerted me when they suspected foul play, and I’m so appreciative!
I had my identity stolen a couple years ago while I was traveling abroad and it was literally the worst experience of my life. I had to get almost everything changed, including a note on my credit report because so much fraudulent money had been spent!
Shopping online can be dangerous it is nice to know there are services like this that help prevent fraud. Thanks for sharing =)
These are great tips. I do try and change up my passwords and make them as strong as possible. We have had our credit card info stolen a few times in the past too. Happy New School Year!
Having your identity stolen is a nightmare. Changing your pw often is a smart idea. These are great tips!
Having my identity stolen is actually one of my biggest fears! Thanks for some awesome tips, I do a lot of shopping normally so this is super helpful!
Wow that must have been tough! To have your identity stolen I can’t imagine how that feels, these are great tips to help in the future.
These are some great tips! I love that you can protect yourself with Chase. I never think of something happening like that, but it does.
I love these tips!! Identify theft is not fun to have to deal with, I have a couple friends that have had it happen to them.
I hate when that happens! My mom had a really bad run in with her identity being stolen and thankfully, our bank is the bomb!
Being safe is a must. I rather be over cautious than to be scammed.
Identity theft is awful this time of year!! I love these tips so smart to be proactive about it.
Identity theft is a huge problem. I can’t tell you how many times our old, pre-chip credit cards were hacked. I’m glad corporations have finally moved to more security for customers.
Identity fraud is so scary! These are great tips. Fingers crossed I never have to deal with this.
My parents have had their information compromised over the summer, twice! They were lucky to have caught it before any damage was done, but the process to change over accounts was a nightmare. I will be passing this along to them. I think its really important to be careful while traveling too. That is when it happened to them, and it happened to us once too.
Always a good idea, a stolen identity would be a mess to fix.
I have suffered fraud several times now and was fortunate that my bank caught it quickly. Thank you for the great tips!
All great tips! Thankfully we did all our shopping months ago and in cash. ID theft is scary. I’ve had our debit card number stolen before. Thankfully the bank was quick to respond by noticing the spike in spending and shut it down right away. I can’t imagine having to deal with more than that.
Identity theft is a very scary thing. It affects your whole life and is so hard to fix. this sounds like great protection.
So scary that you got your identity stolen! That must have been terrible. Good tips here, I do wonder about the card purchases though, might be worth going back to good old cash!
I don’t personally use Chase. But once I spent a lot of money in one day, and my bank called me just to make sure it was me making the transactions and that my card wasn’t stolen. I think it would be scary to have your identity stolen!
Protecting your identity is so important. I have had a couple scares where someone has gotten my card number before.