Reasons your credit card gets blocked

 

 7 tips for handling it when it happens to you

  

When your credit card company stops a thief from charging fraudulent expenses to your card, you're thrilled. But what happens when they mistake you for the thief? 

7️⃣ reasons your credit card gets blockedWith $6.89 billion in fraud losses in 2009, credit card companies eager to stem the tide are continually beefing up their anti-fraud measures, relying on sophisticated computer software to flag suspicious transactions. Trouble is, what looks like a red flag to a computer may just be you trying to make a mundane purchase. Then, all of a sudden, your card's declined, leaving you red-faced and frustrated. 

So what looks bad to your card company? Anything out of the ordinary. "The credit card companies -- Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover -- all have their own proprietary technologies that look for anomalies in your spending habits," says Robert Siciliano, a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert based in Boston. Siciliano suggests that each transaction is automatically analyzed for up to 200 different data points, everything from where you live to what you normally buy to how much you're spending, to determine the likelihood that you're the one actually making a particular charge. If the analysis doesn't add up, your card will be blocked and your next purchase declined.

So be careful.......