Credit cards on your keyring?
In a world where everyone is paranoid about getting their personal financial information stolen it would seem like an absurd idea for a credit card company to offer mini cards to attach to the one thing people notoriously lose: key rings.
Of all the items that people absentmindedly misplace, key rings are at the top of the list. It blows my mind that some people think that putting a credit card fob on their key rings is brilliant. I mean, I’m all in favor of convenience, but when the idea makes it easier for anyone to use my credit card, I’m not sold on the idea. After all, I can’t think of any way to make my keys a bigger jackpot to a potential thief.
“Hi, here is the key to my house, the key to my car, and while you’re at it, here’s a credit card to go get yourself lunch on the way to pilfer my belongings.”
I know that credit card companies offering these fobs tout the fantastic security measures in place for these cards. If it gets stolen then you aren’t accountable for the charges, but that doesn’t mean that it’s any less of a hassle. You’ll still have to contact the fraud department of the credit card issuer, prove that you didn’t make the charges, and in most cases you’ll wind up doing this more than once because some credit card companies make it relatively difficult to dispute charges.
If a thief gets a hold of your credit card and you don’t notice until your statement arrives, you may suddenly find yourself facing several thousand dollars in unauthorized charges. What credit card company is going to reply to this with a simple and cheerful, “Don’t worry about this; we’ll take care of it!” without some investigating? In other words, getting your fob stolen and used by someone is not as easily remedied as some credit card issuers paint it out to be.
There’s no disputing the allure of the convenience, though. Whip out your fob, wave it at a terminal, and away you go. You have to wonder, however, if this convenience might make credit cards way too easy to use in a psychological sense. Plenty of consumers already have a hard enough time making the connection between using a credit card and actually spending money – indeed, studies have shown time and again that shoppers spend more money when using credit cards than they do when they pay with cold hard cash – so what happens to consumers when using a credit card is as simple as waving a proverbial magic wand? Things can get messy.
Maybe you have a credit card fob and you adore it. Maybe you haven’t encountered a single problem with your fob, and you sing praises to your fob on a daily basis. Just keep an eye on your keychain, and always keep it in mind that the fob isn’t some enchanted item…it’s a credit card, and that bill is going to come to you sooner or later regardless of your payment method.
Related posts:
- Debit Cards Vs. Credit Cards: Plastic Showdown
- Credit Cards and Taxes
- Top Reasons to Have Multiple Credit Cards
- The Business of Credit Cards – Part I
- The Business of Credit Cards – Part II
Just last night, I was going through a box of old files, bills and miscellaneous junk and I found an old keyring of a bunch of old grocery store and library cards from when I lived in Los Angeles. On there was also my old Bank of America debit card, and I wondered what in the world I was thinking? Of course, I wasn’t thinking back then. This was before I’d gotten my first credit card (back in 2003) and I had no idea about things like identity theft and credit.
And my cards were constantly falling off my key chain too. I was really lucky that I never lost them, because with debit cards, there is even less protection than credit cards, am I right?
There is the same protection for a debit card as for a credit card, but more disruption to your real life since they are stealing your grocery money rather than your available credit.
But I always thought those key chain credit cards were really dumb too.
This is why American Express company is dropping the issuance of its Express Pay fob device. People don’t believe that they are much safer than a traditional credit card and the convenience reason appeares to be not just enough to use such payment tools. One this s true and tha author said it, a fob is just a credit card and the bill is to come, but unlike a standard card , the fob is easier to lose…