5 Crucial Credit Card Anti-Theft Measures You Shouldn’t Overlook

Credit cards are a convenient way to pay for purchases while racking up rewards for the things you’re buying. But they can also open the door to fraud.

Credit card fraud was the most common form of identity theft during the first quarter of 2025, according to the FTC. And unfortunately, criminals seem to be getting better at stealing credit card data, whether by breaching systems through hacking or skimming from point-of-sale machines at merchant locations.

As a consumer, it’s important to protect your credit card information. You may be reasonably protected against fraudulent charges. But having your credit card data stolen is a hassle.

At a minimum, it generally means having to cancel your card and get a new one. That could also mean having to update all of your automatic bills with your new credit card number.

In this Reddit post, we have someone whose credit card information was stolen. And they want to know how to prevent that sort of thing.

The good news is that there are steps you can take to protect yourself from credit card theft. Here are five anti-theft measures you should know about.

1. Checking your account regularly

Checking your credit card account on a weekly basis won’t necessarily prevent fraud. But it might prevent a criminal from perpetuating that fraud on a larger scale.

What criminals sometimes do is charge a small expense using a stolen credit card number to see if they can get away with it before moving on to larger purchases. If you catch a criminal from the start, you can minimize the damage.

2. Setting up an account with a strong password

The harder it is for a criminal to access your credit card account online, the better protected your credit card data will be. So to that end, make sure your passwords are tough to crack.

If your name is John Owens and your birthday is Feb. 2, 1980, jowens2280 is not as secure a password as you might think. Anything that’s a combination of your name and date of birth is going to be pretty easy for a criminal to crack. If needed, use a password manage to generate strong, unique passwords for each online account you have.

3. Using two-factor authentication

Criminals have gotten better at hacking into credit card accounts. To protect yours, set up two-factor authentication.

Say a criminal gets their hands on your password. With two-factor authentication, you can block them from actually getting into your credit card account if they can’t verify their identity in the absence of having your phone.

4. Only shopping on secure websites

There are plenty of online merchants out there that will gladly take your money. But if you want to protect your credit card information, make a point to only shop on sites that are secure.

Most secure websites have a padlock icon next to the URL, so that’s your first clue that a site is or isn’t secure. But also, use logic. If it’s a site you never heard of, you may want to stay away.

5. Using payment apps at stores

When you go to buy groceries or other products at the store, you’re not necessarily limited to using your credit card to check out. Many merchants accept payment apps like Apple Pay. And these apps can protect your credit card data in a couple of ways.

First, payment apps don’t share your actual credit card number with merchants. Instead, they generate a unique token for each transaction so your credit card data is harder to steal. Payment apps also use encryption to protect your data while transactions are going through.

Plus, with a payment app, you don’t need to have your physical card on hand. That means you won’t accidentally drop it for a criminal to pick up and steal.

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