Since the first news about 40 million customers’ credit cards being stolen, the news about the Target stores hack has only gotten worse. The latest I’ve heard is that the number is up to 110 million for Target. Then the news is reporting that Neiman Marcus has also been hacked, and now three other big retailers have also been hacked, but the news isn’t reporting who they are. BTW, California state law or federal law requires that the store report this to their customers promptly, so those stores could be breaking the law.
This has not affected me, since I haven’t used my credit or debit cards at these stores. Generally I pay cash, or if I buy online I use Paypal, since it’s free for the customer (if you pay directly from your checking account). More online stores and most of eBay sellers are now honoring Paypal.
Another form of payment being offered by my credit union is Pop Money. I have not signed up with this, but from what I’ve read it’s similar to Paypal. There are also many negative ratings of Pop Money, such as slowness of payment. The only other form of online payment I have is Google Wallet, but I haven’t used it yet.
I have already had a bad experience with my credit card. A few years ago I received a call from the credit card security asking if I had purchased some Nike apparel at an out of state location, and I answered no. After two or three more questions with the same answer, they told me my credit card had been compromised and said they would cancel it and issue me a new one. Although I didn’t lose any money, I lost the use of my credit card for a few days, and I had to contact all of these businesses – merchants, utilities – where my credit card was used and give them the new credit card number. This was a pain in the tush, because I couldn’t remember which merchant had my credit card number, and sometimes I found that an order was held up because my credit card had expired. So I started using cash or money orders for some payments. I haven’t had any problems since, but I’m hesitant to use my credit card because of that bad experience.
Update Jan 17 – More in the Evening News today. Some fingers are pointing to a teenage hacker in Russia as the culprit. Several articles about it, which I haven’t had time to read yet.
Jan 23 – A friend said that he used his credit card at Target to buy the present he gave me. I said I was glad it was his credit card, not mine!
Jan 25 – The evening news reported that Michaels, a large chain of crafts supplies stores, has also been hacked.
Jan 29 – The news said that the credit card companies have spent over $150 million replacing the Target credit cards, and the cost could go over a billion dollars.