Spain credit card hacking scam

Story link: Spain credit card hacking scam

It reads as bad news indeed for anyone who has recently visited Spain - apparently a rogue credit card processor has been allowing details of user credit cards to be used for potentially malicious purposes:

Credit card security breach fear

Reports are being investigated of a major credit card scam in Spain.

Anyone who used a Visa or Mastercard credit card when in Spain may have had their card data compromised.

In Germany, as many as 100,000 cards are reportedly being recalled. UK customers will be contacted directly if they are thought to be at risk.

Card holders are being assured that they will be protected against this type of fraud, but are being advised to check their statements.

Spanish police are investigating a credit card processing company which is believed to be at the centre of the scam.

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That’s quite a headline, and the figures are astonishing - 100,000 cards recalled in Germany alone.

Certainly we’ve seen a lot of bad news about credit card details being swiped and used illegally - happened to me two years ago after staying in a hotel in Nottingham.

However, individual instances, or isolated incidents of rogue traders is nothing compared to a full blown card processing company going rogue.

The real question is whether the company itself was indeed rogue, or whether it was simply corrupt exmployees within the the organisation? We saw the latter reported the other day about T Mobile customer data being sold on by rogue employees.

Either way, not good if your card was compromised - but thankfully caredit card payments are protected, so anyone affected should not lose out, so long as they double-check their statements and ensure that any false charges to their card are reported.

Watch your energy bills on Direct Debit

Story link: Watch your energy bills on Direct Debit

If you pay your gas and electricity bills by Direct Debit you could accidentally rack up surprise debts.

The warning comes from Citizens Advice, in the wake of ever increasing energy bills which means that Direct Debit payments could be costing more than originally accounted for:

BBC: Warning on estimated power bills

Energy customers with estimated bills could be racking up debts of hundreds of pounds without realising it, according to Citizens Advice.

The charity says thousands of people have got in touch over their estimated gas and electric bills.

In the worst cases people have found they owed over £1,000 when they thought their direct debits were covering their energy costs.

The lesson is clear - ensure you read your meter and that you bills are updated to keep on top of actual usage.

I’ve had a problem with this myself, where the estimated bills I was paying were much less than actual usage, so when the meter was eventually read some time later, my bill was shockingly high.

As ever, the best way to manage your finances is to keep on top of expenditure and debt in the first place.