What Is Being Done to Combat Fraud?

In order to combat credit card fraud, the banking industry have formed the Payment Industry and Police Joint Intelligence Unit. This new agency will be responsible for for dealing with all types of fraud and will no longer be limited to physical credit card and cheque fraud.

The Metropolitan Police also have a unit specifically to deal with cheque/credit card frauds – the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit. Although based in London this unit works nationally.  This unit contains both serving police officers and experts from the banking industry. They largely concentrate on serious and organised crime. Their primary source of leads to work on comes from intelligence from banking institutions regarding specific frauds they have became the victim of.

Card Watch are also providing training to retailers who accept credit card payments. This helps to lower fraud in the retail sector as the shop owners become aware of what to be suspicious of during a credit card transaction, as well as how to detect forged bank cards.

Intelligence systems are being developed by the major banks to quickly identify patterns in a cards use that could indicate fraudulent activity. For example, if a credit card is used to buy high-risk items such as iPods several times within a short timeframe, the card would be locked pending further investigation.

If fraud figures can be lowered, it is the consumers who will benefit. Although credit card holders are not liable for transactions on their card that they did not authorise, ultimately it is them that pay the price due to higher interest rates imposed by the banks.

How to Teach Your Children about Money

Depending on the expert that you speak with, there are various ways to teach your children about money. Some methods are quite different from others and some offer more instruction, rather than demonstration. The truth of the matter is that the way that your child feels and learns about money comes from the way that you spend money, the way that you act with the money and your actions regarding debt and other financial matters – not from the lessons that you teach the child.

When teaching a child about money it is important to lead by example. Leading by example allows the child to see that you, the role model looks towards using money for items which are required within the budget, not for items that are spent on a whim. So, think about this the next time that you whip out to pay for an expensive purchase that you will be paying for months down the road.

One of the most important things to learn when trying to teach the child about money is that debt and income and spending should all be approached in a realistic manner. Teaching the child about the dangers of debt and how they should spend their money wisely and begin savings accounts.

Any money that the child receives for a gift or for an allowance should be divided and a portion of this money should be added to a savings account.