Credit Card Blog

Okay, all credit card fraud is pretty heinous. But some thieves go over the top. Here are some of the most outrageous cases of credit card fraud from July 2009:

El Paso, TX: Jose Adrian Castillo was arrested and charged with fraud. His method? Playing on the sympathies of elderly women by telling them he was dying of cancer. Of course, the ladies couldn’t deny Castillo’s dying requests, so they let the con man borrow their credit cards. He ran up tabs as high as $25,000 on these ill-gotten cards before police finally caught up to him.

Vermilion, OH: Jason Truxel was the victim of identity theft. Someone had used his personal information to open up lines of credit, obtain a mortgage, and even receive tax refunds. Imagine Truxel’s shock when he learned that the fraudster was his own dad! Sadly, statistics show that parents frequently steal their kids’ identities.

Cross Lanes, WV: A computer programmer named Martin Bowling decided to go on an identity-stealing spree. His target? The subscribers of ‘Woodcrafters Magazine’. He made off with $4,500 and purchased - among other things - an automatic litter box.

Remember: identity theft and credit card fraud happen every day. You can protect yourself by using Smart Cards, keeping your passwords safe, and never clicking on links contained in e-mails - no matter how official they seem.

This prank has been around awhile, but it’s an entertaining read. An individual who uses credit cards for just about all of his transactions gets very annoyed about having to sign for every last purchase. He figures no one really looks at the signature anyway, and that it serves no purpose and slows the process of paying for items by credit down unnecessarily.

He goes on to prove his point by embarking on a credit card prank in which he makes crazy “signatures” whenever he’s presented with a receipt to sign. Some of his signatures are doodles, some are drawings, some are simple marks on the paper. How many do you think he signed in this manner before getting caught? Are the purchases valid with these prank signatures on them?

Read more on the credit card signature prank.

By now, you might have heard of the ‘Tennessee Credit Card Massacre’, one man’s attempt to destroy his credit cards in the most satisfying ways possible. In the video, Fred Wilharn of Franklin, TN, dons a familiar hockey mask and disposes of his credit cards by slicing, shredding, blending, drilling, and even electrocuting them.

What could drive a man to such vicious acts!? Wilharn had just paid off his credit card debt following a series of rate and fee increases. Rather than celebrating by simply cutting up the cards, Wilharn got creative and decided to commemorate the occasion with an entertaining horror movie spoof. The video has gone viral, and has been featured on ABC, Fox News, and in the Wall Street Journal.

Do you sympathize with WIlharn? Millions of cardholders have been stressed out by rising interest rates. Even folks with good credit standings have felt the pinch of lower credit limits and higher rates. If you’ve ever felt like cutting up your own cards, be sure to watch Wilharn’s YouTube video.

Fortunately, there are still some decent interest rates to be had. Take a look at our low interest credit cards to find one.

A 29 year old engineer from Massachusetts has taken a novel approach to getting rid of his credit card debt: he’s selling it on Ebay! The seller, who goes by the nickname ’speedwerx’, has fallen on hard times. Both he and his wife have recently become unemployed, and they have $22,000 in credit card debt - on top of a mortgage and college loans.

The family is hoping to find 2,500 Ebay buyers willing to pay $10 apiece. That amount would get the couple out of credit card debt and help them get current on their mortgage payments.

How did the family get in such a mess? The comatose economy is partially to blame, but ’speedwerx’ also recognizes how his family’s spending habits contributed to their current situation. Fresh out of college, the couple bought a house and started a family. Now they realize that they took on too much debt too quickly.

Says ’speedwerx’ on his Ebay listing: “This is a very humbling time for me, and I’m looking to do everything I can to support my family.”

Unfortunately, as of today, the listing had been removed from Ebay. Creativity is an asset, though, so hopefully this family will be able to come up with a debt solution that works for them.

Kids do the darnedest things.

For example, six-year-old Bennett Christiansen of Aurora, Illinois, managed to get his own credit card from Bank of America.

Amy Christiansen, the child’s mother, said that all of her family members had been receiving offers of credit in the mail - including Bennett. For a bit of fun, she allowed Bennett to fill out and send in one of the applications addressed to him.

In a totally unexpected development, Bennett soon received a credit card with his name on it, even though he’d listed his birth date as 2002 and his income as $0. The child’s card carried a $600 credit limit.

Bank of America insists that they do not target or give credit to minors, but Mrs. Christiansen was understandably concerned about the ease with which her child obtained his first credit card. She’d better stay on her toes; Bennett’s 3-year-old sibling has also received offers of credit.

When a father of a Texas 13-year-old forgot to get his son a birthday present, the boy took matters into his own hands and order an additional card from his dad’s credit card company.  Apparently, if you know the answers to the security questions, anyone can get an additional card sent out in their name.

The teenager took a few buddies out on the town and charged $30,000 on his dad’s credit card account.  They capped off the evening in a motel room, where they ordered two female escorts, at just $1,000 a night (each).  The girls thought their clients appeared “young”, and so instead of their typical job duties, they played “Halo” on the Xbox with the boys. 

The call girls were released without charge, and the boy was sentenced to three years community service and convicted of fraud.  According to an article on Money.co.uk, when asked what the boy aspires to be when he grows up?  A politician, of course.

In the spirit of the Halloween season, we’ve dredged up information on one card that should be avoided at all costs. Consumerist.Com recognizes the Continental Finance MasterCard as the worst credit card in the world.

How did this card earn such a dubious honor? It was designed for high-risk card holders with bankruptcies and poor credit histories, but those things alone do not a scary card make.

The terror is in the details: a $300 credit limit that costs $247 to set up. Plus a $10 monthly account maintenance fee. Plus 20% interest on all purchases. Plus a $4 charge whenever you make an online payment. Card holders do get automatic upgrades to their credit limit when they qualify for such, but the upgrades come in $100 increments, each tagged with a $25 fee.

There are so many better alternatives. For some helpful advice, check out our articles on credit cards for consumers with poor or no credit. There are some scary cards out there in Low Credit Land; when confronted by them, make information your weapon of choice.

This is a nice little “diddy” of a song, found it while browsing around youtube. It basically describes the problem many people have with credit cards. It’s not that credit cards themselves are all that bad, it’s that most people don’t really know how to use them responsibly. We get caught up in the “gotta have it” and spend more than we should because let’s face it, it’s just so much easier to swipe the card than to worry about setting aside cash to save for the latest “gotta have it” item. I wonder how many of us would actually save up for that pair of shoes or new phone if we had to save for it BEFORE we bought it?

Click Here to watch video

We might actually benefit more from credit card rewards programs and benefits if we were able to use the cards more responsibly. So I hope you enjoy this video and that it inspires you to use your credit cards more appropriately!

The Barbie doll has been around forever it seems- and while she’s evolved over the years and updated her fashion with all of the latest trends- she’s become a Doctor, an Astronaut, a Lawyer, a Vet… owns a hot pink porsche and of course- the dream house- no one really stopped to think how Barbie paid for all her wonderful clothes and toys! That is, until now. The Cool Shoppin’ Barbie now comes with a must-have accessory- the purse, containing her very own credit card, complete with the MasterCard logo.

What’s Barbie going to buy with her credit card? Anything her little heart desires of course, since Mattel and MasterCard probably haven’t figured out how to mail Barbie a statement demanding payment each month! In order to give Barbie a place to shop, you can of course purchase the Barbie Boutique- complete with a cash register that opens and plays a “Credit Approved!” recording.

Remember the classic Monopoly game from Parker Brothers? Counting out bills and getting all nervous when you only had the small bills left and you still had to make it around past your opponents hotel properties before you’d make any money! Well, those days are just about over. Monopoly is issuing all new versions of the famous board game, and this time- there will be none of the multi-colored play money. Instead, players each receive a plastic Visa card, and the game includes a “credit card reader” to help you get your paycheck direct deposited and to make payments when you land on someone else’s property or want to purchase your own.