Credit Card fraud. One of the big scary things we hope and pray we never have to endure, for a variety of reasons. I was recently a victim of credit card fraud on my U.S. Dollar Visa card and when I went to pick up the new card I thought, “This so frustrating. I have so many automatic payments that I have to go and update.”
But, in all the chaos of updating every company I have recurring payments with, I’m making lemonade out of lemons by taking the time to get things in order and make a list. That’s right, a simple list.
I already have to spend my time calling, emailing, or logging onto the 20 places where I currently use this US dollar credit card for monthly payments. I’m using that time wisely, because while I’m doing that, I’m going to compile a list of everywhere that I’m logging into as well as the links just in case I have to do this again!
If you want to see how I’m organizing this process, let’s get started!
Make a List (00:53)
I’m using the project management software Asana for this process. Just to mention, Asana is free and I love using it for my bookkeeping specifically but there’s a lot of other uses for it. One of the features that I love about Asana the most is recurring tasks. But let’s get back to business and look at my credit card fraud issue.
So first, I’ve got my list of payments and places where I’ll need to update my new credit card information. This is a helpful list to have anytime you have a card expire, a new credit card number, or in my case, credit card fraud.
If you have to call or log into 20 different places, having this list will literally save-your-life! Well, not literally, but you get what I’m trying to say here. Every time you get a new company to pay, add them to this list with your account number and/or log-in credentials, the date your payment is due, and the amount you pay. On this list, I also keep places where my credit card may be on file even if I don’t have recurring payments, like PayPal or Amazon.
Using PayPal as an example, I don’t have recurring payments necessarily through PayPal, but I have my card on file so that I can pay through PayPal without pulling out my credit card. This is going to save me time down the road because when I go and log in to order something on Fiverr, I don’t have to go find my wallet, pull out the card, and enter the info. It’s just going to be there with PayPal and I can pay with ease.
Gather Your Payment Info (2:34)
The way that I’ve segmented this is I have started with my full list which includes all of my payments. Next, I went through and I pulled out every transaction that is a recurring payment on my statement from last month. Then I put how much I pay and what day of the month that comes out.
Here’s an example: I pay FEA (Female Entrepreneur Association) $37 a month on the 7th of each month.
To summarize, I’m making the best of this situation and spending a couple of hours dealing with updating my credit card info after having credit card fraud. I’m going to go through the entire list of vendors, make sure my information is updated with each merchant, and I’ll maintain the list when a new monthly transaction needs to be added.
This list isn’t just useful in credit card fraud situations but can also be useful for when you get a new card after your card number or date expires. You’ll not only add things to this list, but you’ll delete payments you no longer make as well.
Creating lists in this manner is not just useful for your credit card payments and transactions, you can also use this method for keeping up with changes of address. I used to move somewhat frequently (a story for another day), but I used to have a spreadsheet of places I needed to change my mailing address.
These lists just save you time in the future and allow you to check things off when you have a big stressful project like updating your card after being a victim of fraud or changing your address after a big move.
If you have questions about this method, how I’m using Asana, or if you just want to console me for my stupid fraud charges on the visa that we used all over the seven states we traveled to last month, hit me up! I’m here for you.
Tell me in the comments. How would you use this method?
