• 00:00 🌍 Travel Industry Instability

  • The travel industry faces instability, with recent examples like airline and cruise line closures impacting travelers.

  • Tour operators often face issues with credit card companies withholding funds until services are completed, leaving consumers vulnerable.

  • Credit card protections for travel bookings are strong within 60 days but become less clear beyond that period, emphasizing the need for caution.

• 03:01 ✈️ Booking Tours and Cruises: Credit Card vs. Debit Card

  • Never use a debit card, electronic transfer, or check for booking tours or cruises due to extended prepayment and risks associated with supplier failures.

  • Credit cards with supplier default coverage provide additional protection even when federal regulations might not cover losses.

  • Trip cancellation or interruption insurance bundled with credit cards can offer peace of mind and financial protection in case of supplier default.

• 04:38 🛫 Airline Ticket Protection: Credit Card vs. Debit Card

  • Historically, credit cards offer robust protection for airline ticket purchases, even beyond the typical 60-day period.

  • Paying with a credit card ensures protection against airline failures, whereas debit cards offer little to no consumer protection.

  • Debit cards are cautioned against due to their limited protection and are deemed risky for purchasing flight tickets.

Sounds like chips and phone are safer than the mag strip. SNAP uses mag strip, so quite vulnerable to skimming.

• 💳 Card-skimming scams cost financial institutions and U.S. consumers over a billion dollars each year.
• 💳 Skimming is a cat-and-mouse game between the criminals and the investigators; when one side finds a way to stop it, the other side finds a new way around it.
• 💳 Vulnerable groups, such as low-income Americans, are increasingly being targeted by skimmers. In particular, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program is vulnerable to skimming.
• 💳 SNAP cards use a magnetic stripe that is easily hacked because it is not as secure as the chip that stores started accepting back in 2015.
• 💳 Every one dollar skimmed ends up costing nearly four dollars in loss, which is passed on to every taxpayer.
• 💳 Lawmakers from multiple states are urging the USDA to update cybersecurity standards for the nation's food assistance program, as it has not done so since 2010.
• 💳 The USDA is testing a pilot program in five states next year that will allow SNAP recipients to try tap-to-pay, a more secure payment method.
• 💳 Law enforcement and business owners are being trained to stop skimming.

The link your bank checking (debit) account to "virtual" credit card numbers that go away after the charge is made (I think). So no worries if someone gets access to the credit card number (breech). It won't work since it was only temporary.

fraud.transunion.com

refers to http://www.selflender.com/