The 1 Simple Act That Can Protect You From Credit Card Fraud

Fourteen times a day.

That's how often someone with a smartphone checks Facebook, according to a 2013 International Data Corporation study commissioned by Facebook. Add all those visits up, and smartphone users spend about a half hour each day just checking on Facebook.

And that's just one site.

But we smartphone users don't just visit one site each day, do we?

There's Gmail. Twitter. Pinterest. And there's your favorite sports, music, news site or fashion.

We don't think anything of visiting our favorite sites every single day, often more than once a day.

But what about your bank's website or your credit card issuer's website? How often do you visit them?

The answer is likely very different. In this age of high-profile data breaches and fraud, that can lead to trouble.

The average American makes numerous purchases in a given month. Often, when you log in to your bank or credit card website, you might even be surprised to see just how many transactions there are. After all, you probably can't recall every single purchase you made in the past 30 days -- possibly even the past 10 days. We all have more important things to think about than the last time we got gas or a Gatorade at the corner convenience store.

That's a problem, though. And it's one that credit card and debit card fraudsters count on.

One of fraudsters' favorite ploys is to make a small purchase at a gas station or a convenience store to make sure that the stolen credit card information they have is valid. By keeping the purchase small, they're often able to accomplish their goal without setting off any alarms with the victimized cardholder.

Think about it: If you saw a strange $2 purchase on your card, how likely would you be to take the time to call your issuer and have the charge wiped out? Probably not as likely as you might think. You would likely blow it off as not being a big enough concern to mess with.

Of course, that assumes that you even notice the charge. You'd immediately notice a $1,000 purchase on your card, but a simple $2 charge might not stand out in a list of 25 to 30 transactions that you made in the past month.

So how do you remedy this?

It's simple: more frequent visits to your banks' websites.

"Ugh," you might say, rolling your eyes. "I'm way too busy to visit those sites every day. I've got too many other things to do."

Sure you do. Like checking your Facebook page for the 14th time today.

The reality is that you've got to make the time to keep a closer eye on your bank accounts.

Here's what you can do:

-- Make it part of your routine. We're all creatures of habit, so build checking your bank accounts into your daily schedule. If you always check email and Facebook every morning over a bagel and coffee, start checking your bank account, too. If you eat lunch at your desk at work and catch up on the news of the day, try going to your bank website before you visit USNews.com or DrudgeReport.com. It may seem a little unusual at first, but after a few days, it'll be old hat and you won't even think about it.

-- Focus more on your checking account. Not willing to check all your accounts so often? If you can only pick one to focus on, make it your checking account. That's because time is of the essence when it comes to debit cards and fraud. With a credit card, federal law typically limits your liability for fraudulent activity to $50, regardless of when you report the activity. That's not the case with debit cards: If you report the fraudulent debit card activity within two days of seeing it, your liability under federal law is $50. However, wait longer than that and your liability shoots up to $500. (If you wait more than 60 days, there may be no limits to your liability.) Plus, remember that debit card fraud takes real money out of your bank account -- money that can take up to two weeks for the bank to replace. That missing money can cause a mortgage payment or car payment to bounce, and that can cause even bigger problems.

-- Remember that it gets easier the more often you do it. The first time you check your bank account, it might take a little while to review 20 to 30 transactions. But when you log in the next day, you'll only have one day of transactions to check out -- and chances are that any transactions you made on that day will be fresh in your mind, making fraudulent ones stick out like a sore thumb.

The vast majority of times you check your account online, it'll take only a minute or so, and nothing will look amiss. But if the day comes when something does look strange, you'll be ready to act and you'll be glad you took the time -- even though it briefly kept you from more exciting things, like viewing pictures of your friends' kids or videos of piano-playing cats on Facebook.

Matt Schulz is the senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com, a site dedicated to helping people make smart decisions about obtaining and using credit. You can follow him on Twitter at @matthewschulz.