fraud

There seems to be a little confusion being perpetuated here. As I said earlier, I WAS genuinely surprised at such quick action from a bank (are local banks equally fast?). But then I'm likely not a typical CC user. The only card I have is my local bank debit/credit card as I made the choice decades ago (for very good reason) to rid myself of all of them. If that puts me in the "DOH" category then so be it. 😀

Credit card companies are pretty swift these days in contacting the card holder. I've gotten calls to verify use if card used off island or for large purchases. In this day and age, they have to be and it benefits the consumer.

A once little advertised option improving the security of debit cards is to swipe the debit card and, instead of entering the PIN, press the "credit" button instead of the "debit" button, if the terminal offers this choice. This will generate a receipt which the user must sign at the point of sale as with a typical credit card transaction. The money will still come out of the checking account, but the transaction will be routed through a different network. This method gives the user the protections of a credit card purchase.

That is very good to know. I have a debit/ Visa card and 99.8% of the time I use it as a credit card. Very rarely, as you can see, I use it as a debit card. I'm happy I have protection using it as a credit card vs. a debit card.
I use Banco Popular and I'm still going to the bank representatives about the protection of my card.

the debit card that was used fraudulently was recently sent to me with the "added " protection.

Semper paratus. In the event of a systemic financial crisis, capital controls and/or other unforeseen calamities, it's probably a good idea to have a stash of cash, that you can draw upon, hidden somewhere. Cash is king in those exigencies. Cyprus and Greece are lessons in that respect.

In a severe financial crisis I'm afraid pitchforks, machetes, and guns will be way more powerful than paper money. 😉

Hah! Way to advertise!

I would never use a debit card in the VI.

I would never use a debit card in the VI.

Don't they all now come with the option of using them as a debit or credit transaction? Mine (local bank) has for years.

I'm quite adept with a machete and pitchfork and have dreamt of economic collapse for decade....

lol

It seems each time I visit the USVI my card gets compromised. Once I was with two other friends, all of our cards were compromised yet none of us used our cards in the same place. It lends me to believe that some how the system by which transactions are being uploaded is being hacked throughout the territory. Luckily in all of the cases our credit card companies discovered the fraudulent activity immediately through their sophisticated fraud detection algorithms. It is a pain to change card numbers though so I have since open a new account solely for traveling purposes.

Both my banks, here and in the states, have called me within hours within the past two months that my card had been compromised. Got my money immediately back within an hour from my bank in states. Took weeks to get mine back at bank here.