We all know that using credit and debit cards on a regular basis can be bad for our financial health, but did you know that this can also be true of your physical health? With the current fears about swine flu, you’ve probably heard that germs can survive for hours on inanimate objects such as door handles or lift buttons.

What you may not realize is that this can extend to your credit and debit cards too. If someone who is carrying the swine flu virus comes into contact with your credit or debit card, he or she can easily pass the virus on to you. For example, if a cashier who has developed swine flu symptoms handles your card during a transaction, they can contaminate your card with germs that linger for anything from hours to months. The more people who touch your card, the higher your chances of contracting the illness.

How can you protect your cards against swine flu?

You might think that carrying out transactions yourself using keypads is the obvious answer to this, but even this carries a high degree of risk. Keypads are notorious for harboring germs, especially as they will be touched by numerous individuals throughout the course of a day and this can make them more of a potential hazard than handing your card to a cashier.  While you can wipe both your card and your hands with anti-bacterial wipes after it has been handed back to you to minimize the chance for germs to hang around, it is less feasible to do this on keypads before using them as they are not your property to do so.

However, you can still use anti-bacterial wipes on your hands after having touched a keypad. This is obviously not a fool-proof way of killing swine flu germs, but it is one of the few things that you can really do while on the move. Washing your hands on a frequent basis is recommended for preventing the spread of the germs too.

Credit card scammers

Even swine flu isn’t safe from the credit card scammers. One scamming method that is currently doing the rounds is becoming more and more centred around swine flu. As the global concern regarding the disease continues, you may find your inbox becoming full of junk email that offers antiviral medication that claims to treat or even prevent swine flu symptoms. This is clearly designed to appeal to those of us who are paranoid about contracting the condition and want to get hold of antiviral medication without the need to venture into the outside world and risk coming into contact with people who are already carrying swine flu germs.

In actual fact, these emails will more than likely be a fraudulent ploy to get hold of your credit card details. If you encounter these types of emails, chalk them up as yet more spam and press the delete button. If swine flu does hit you, get your medication through the conventional route and don’t be fooled into handing over credit card details for online medication that either does not exist or isn’t the real deal.

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