About ten years ago I had a credit card that I had had for quite a while. I went to a city that I hadn't been to before, tried to use my card to charge gas, and it was refused! Talk about embarrassed! I didn't have a balance at the time so it was doubly scary. When I was able to get to a phone, I called the company, and they said it was just a precaution because it was outside my normal pattern. I thanked them for their vigilance but asked that they be a little less so unless they wanted me to call them every time I left town!

A couple of years after that I got a call from them again. A clerk at K-Mart had used my number to charge several things through Heartland America. They were already investigating them and knew that it was probably bogus.

I check my credit card transactions online every few days now so I can stay on top of charges. However, I never use my debit card online.