Keeping An Eye On Dormant Accounts
I still track all of my accounts in Yodlee, which is somewhat controversial because if someone found my password for Yodlee, they would have access to all my accounts. The flip side is that I can see almost immediately if something funky is up with one of my dormant accounts. Just now, I noticed that my old US Bank card (which I never use) had a charge for $80 on it, which ended up to be some random charge from a Spanish soccer team?
Anyhow, I called them up and had it all taken care of. I probably would have gotten wind of it when they sent me a statement anyways, but that could have taken a month. I also keep my Yodlee login and password completely different than that of the rest of my accounts for an extra layer of security. One company with lax security and all will not be lost.
Of course I’m sure many people, including my father, still keep all their passwords on Post-It notes taped to the side of their computer monitor. You know who you are!
Find more in Credit Cards | 1/6/06, 12:22am | Trackback
January 6th, 2006 at 3:04 am
It is intersting that they charged a card you never use, meaning they probably didn’t get your number from a lost receipt or form a vendor where you last used it. Kind of makes you wonder how they got it!
January 6th, 2006 at 5:17 am
lol, stop buying oversea sport team merchandise
but yeah, I’m rather curious how the account leaked too. hmm…
as for yoddle, even if they have access to it.. I would think the most they can do is see your information (which is a big deal, I know.. but it could be worse), I dont remember yoddle having any features like transfers.
January 6th, 2006 at 7:31 am
I had a similar problem with my Citi card a few months back. I had a “Brazilian telecom equipment charged via telephone” charge on my statement… hmmm.
It was less than $10 and Citi had this long form I never got around to filling out. Instead, I just had them change my account number… Laziness won, but I did protect myself against future charges.
January 6th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Cap,
I use Yodlee through my bank’s website (it’s still Yodlee but the bank contracts to offer it to its customers with the bank’s logos). There is an “auto-login” feature for most accounts that allows you to click once and get into your accounts without having to enter your password. I do use it, but it does make me nervouse.
Which reminds me. I haven’t changed the pwd lately. Better do that right now.
January 6th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Real Madrid? Are you sure you aren’t a David Beckham and bought his jersey?
January 6th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Preview is your friend… that should be “a David Beckham fan”
January 6th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
I’ve been stunned at how many charges from companies I’ve never even heard of have shown up on my CC since I started using Quicken. They were all genuine mistakes– numbers that had been inverted, but without Quicken I may not have caught them. And I certainly wouldn’t have caught them so quickly.
January 6th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Call me paranoid, but this is why, usually about once a year, I report each card I have as lost. (Not at the same time of course.)
I’ll even admit to this: I actually report a card lost more often than that if I end up making any transactions that in some way seem they may not have been safe. For example, if some friends and I schedule a trip together, and I’m “forced” to type my card number on their PC to buy the tickets online. Heck, I don’t know how good of a job my friends do at keeping their PC’s free of spyware, keyboard loggers, etc. I won’t say a thing about it to them of course, but within a few days I’ll tell the CC company I lost it after buying the tickets and just use a different card until I receive my new one. The CC companies probably think I’m a friggin moron, but I don’t care, LOL!
January 6th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
Just wanted to say thanks for mentioning the Yodlee site, it’s very interesting and it looks like it’ll allow me to be more organized with less effort. Always a good thing.
January 6th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Dan - Since every number show up and you get a new one every time, your credit report must be even longer than mine!
January 6th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Dan, you should look into Virtual Account numbers. That way once you are done with the purchase, you can just have the credit card company delete the Virtual Account #. I think Citibank offers this and so does American Express and Discover
January 7th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Gotta be careful with identity theft nowadays. I had $5000 charged to my unused and unactivated AMEX card in one day from the Phillipines.
Great site John. I check it habitually.
January 9th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Doesn’t Yodlee have and option to “show passwords”. So if someone got access to your yodlee account, they would be able to get passwords for all your accounts? Or is there a way to remove that feature?
February 16th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Good catch! I love Yodlee too. I’ve been using it for a few years now and have never had a security problem. The trick is to change your login once every few months.
May 12th, 2007 at 8:21 am
I too had this kind of things happened in the past. Even though the credit card company took care of it right away, I still had to fill out some paperwork and it was a little hassle. I just wonder how they .could get a hold of my card info.