Good morning everyone. A few days ago, I received 2 texts from Discover regarding a Fox Rent A Car charge on my Discover It Credit Card. Unfortunately, I was nowhere near a Fox Rent A Car location and have never rented a car from Fox Rent A Car. I quickly logged into my Discover app and looked at the transaction details. It appears there was a charge for $301.92 and then a refund of $301.92. The other weird thing is the “THUMB*IT” description name. I immediately called Discover and told them my credit card was stolen and reported the transactions as unauthorized. The Discover rep assured me that I would not be responsible for these transactions and would send out a replacement credit card right away. If it weren’t for the text alerts, I may not have noticed that my Discover It Credit Card was stolen, since my balance would not have increased since the transactions cancelled each other out. This is a great reminder of having text alerts set up for your credit cards.
In addition to text alerts, I also have email alerts set up. You can customize the alerts to fit your preferences, but I like to get notified every time there is a transaction made online, by phone, or by mail (basically any charge that was not done in person) and for every transaction over a certain amount (I use a $1 threshold, so I get lots of alerts). Some people may think this is overkill or will get really annoying, but I like the peace of mind knowing exactly when charges will show up on my credit card.
As far as I know, every credit card company offers some type of text, email, or push notifications. I don’t have alerts set up for every credit card I have, but I should. You never know when the alerts will come in handy. Are you a fan of credit card alerts or do you get annoyed by too many notifications? Let me know where you stand. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone and keep your credit cards safe!
I don’t understand the statement “I may not have noticed that my Discover It Credit Card was stolen, since my balance would not have increased since the transactions cancelled each other out. This is a great reminder of having text alerts set up for your credit cards.” Don’t you check your online account occasionally? I do on a regular basis for this exact reason.
I do look at my credit card statements, but not line by line. If the transaction was smaller and named differently, it might not have raised any questions.
I’m not talking about statements, I’m talking about looking at your account online every few days to see what transactions have posted. You could catch this type of thing very easily, especially when you might not get a notice about it.
That is true, I do check my accounts every few days, so I might have caught the transactions then. Use whatever system works for you :)
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