There are so many stresses that are associated with travel: making sure that everything is packed, hoping that all arrangements for flights and accommodations have been taken care of adequately and being sure that you have access to the fund you will need to take your trip.

The Identity Theft Resource Center offers many tips that travelers will find valuable and helpful to review prior to traveling, whether business or pleasure. These tips include many facts that travelers never consider, and should be taken seriously:

-Do not carry checks and bills with you on your trip. Pay your bills at home prior to leaving for your trip or upon your return. They can easily be lost or stolen during travel, especially if stashed away in your hotel room while you visit the pool, local sight seeing, etc.

-Carrying credit cards is much safer than carrying debit cards. Debit cards can be used as credit (requiring a signature and ID when applicable) and can be PIN activated, so that no signature or ID are required. This is an identity thief’s dream, so avoid using them when possible. Debit cards are often PIN activated in a public area and it is easy for someone to look over your shoulder and get the PIN number to the card. Also, these are directly linked to cash in your bank account and can cause you to lose all funds if the account is accessed.

-Be sure that you carry as little information as possible. It is not normally necessary to carry your social security card, more than one credit card, checks, health insurance cards and identity information of family members not with you, etc.

-Have photocopies of all important documents in case you need the information contained on them to report them lost or stolen and keep them in a separate place from your wallet. This will prove helpful when you are reporting any lost documents to the police.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.