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While schools today do a great job of preparing our children to take on the world, the one place where they fail miserably is with personal finance. Many college campuses these days are swarming with credit card companies looking to hook our teens with credit cards as soon as they leave home for the first time. The best thing that you can do as a parent is to sit down with your children and your credit card statements, and teach them exactly how a credit card works and how credit card abuse can ruin your life.

When it comes to educating teenagers about credit cards, most people take one of two approaches. Many credit card companies now have special cards that people can order which are made especially for teenagers. These cards have a very low credit limit, usually only $500 or less, and are attached to the parents account. The teen is allowed to use this Visa or MasterCard exactly like mom and dad does. The card receives its own statement that the teen would be required to pay off, with interest, just as though they have their own credit card. These “cards with training wheels” allow your teens to experience the financial freedom that comes with owning a credit card, but with the knowledge that they are responsible for their actions.

If your card company doesn’t offer one of these assisted credit cards, you can still teach your kids how important responsible credit card usage is. The next time you get one of your credit card bills, call the family together and sit down and show your teen how a credit card works. Start off by showing them the actual card. Demonstrate how it is used and the numerous safety features on the card, such as the signature panel on the back and, assuming your card has one, the photograph on the front. Explain how important it is for them to keep their cards safe and what to do if they ever lose their card.

Next, take out a statement and explain how interest rates on your card affect how much you have to pay. These discussions don’t have to be super-technical, but it is very important for every teen to understand how high interest rates affect credit card balances and how they should avoid rates over a certain percentage, as well as cards with annual fees, unless there are legitimate perks involved.

Show your teen how to read a statement and how they can tell when their payments are due. Also tell your children what the minimum payment is and where to send it. If you do online payments, show your teen how the site works and how to log in and pay your bill online. While it may seem like pulling teeth, remember, you are doing your child a huge service by educating them on how the entire process works.

Part of raising responsible children is showing kids how to handle money properly. As we progress to a cashless society, having the basic knowledge on how to use credit cards is becoming more and more vital.

With the advent of telephone banking and the Internet, the way we manage our credit cards has completely changed. It wasn’t that long ago that we had to wait for our monthly statements in the mail to see how our accounts were doing and it was only then that we could see if there were any incorrect charges or, even worse, if our card number had been stolen. But today, things are much faster, with debit transactions clearing immediately for viewing online, and credit transactions clearing in just a few days. But with greater access to online information comes greater responsibility for keeping that information safe. Here are a few tips for keeping your credit card info safe now and into the future.

Many of us use computers at home, at work, and even sometimes at a third party location like at the library or at a friend’s house. An excellent rule of thumb to follow is to never check your credit card information online from anywhere other than your home computer. Even if you know no one else at work uses your machine, it may not have the latest spyware and antivirus protection on it that you need. You also don’t want to leave your credit card login information on any other computer except a private one in your own home. Always assume no other computer is safe.

It is also a good idea to make sure you have the latest antivirus and spyware protection installed on your computer. One of the main ways that credit card information gets stolen is with programs called keyloggers. Keyloggers are viruses that can be sent to your computer via email or via a file transfer and then secretly install themselves on your computer. After installation the program will then log everything you type, including email login and password codes as well as credit card information, and then transmit the information back to the person who sent it to you. People can not only have their credit card information stolen, but also their private banking information as well as any other personal information you might have typed into your computer. By keeping your antivirus information up to date, you can stop these programs before you even get them.

Another excellent tool you can use to protect yourself is to make sure that all of your passwords to your online accounts aren’t easy to figure out. If your card number and login information is compromised by someone you know, they will likely try all of the “usual” passwords to try to get into your account like the names of your kids, pet names, sports team names and things like that. You are much better using a nonsense word as a password, or, even better, a random collection of letters and numbers that don’t mean anything. The more obscure your password combination is, the less likely it will ever be stolen. The key is you just have to remember it.

It seems like each and every day there is a story on the news about someone getting ripped off and having their identity stolen. It even happens to the rich and famous, so you can only imagine how vulnerable the rest of us are. There are, however, a certain number of common sense practices that we can all follow to help prevent identity theft. Remember, no matter how careful you are, no one is immune.

First, if you feel that you have been the victim of identity theft, contact your credit card company or companies as soon as possible. Many times the cardinal mistake that many people make is that they wait to see if their original suspicions were true before they act. That may seem like the prudent move on the surface, but the reality is that credit card companies are less likely to reimburse you for transactions that happened after the theft occurred if you wait. It is much better to call and ask the necessary questions now rather than finding out later you acted too slowly and getting stuck with charges you didn’t even make.

A second good preventative measure is to create an online account with your credit card company so that you can check your statement about once a week. Gone are the days when you had to wait for a month at a time to check your balance and your charges. With the speed in which lives can be ruined, you simply can not afford to wait a full month to see what is going on with your credit cards. You don’t have to check daily, but waiting more than once a week to check your accounts is playing with fire.

While more and more store clerks have been adhering to the policy of checking signatures and making sure that a credit card is legal before they charge it, if you are at your favorite store and the clerk doesn’t check your signature or doesn’t seem to care that you are paying with a credit card, it might be helpful to remind them. Store clerks are the most important safety valve we have to prevent credit card fraud and stolen identities. If this happens on a regular basis, you can either choose to not shop at that store any more or ask to speak to a manager. Companies these days lose tens of thousands of dollars per year on granting transactions on fake cards.

Finally, the best thing you can do is to use common sense. Keep an eye out in the news to see if any stores in your area are reporting security breaches. If you see one, call your card company right away and ask them if there has been any odd activity on your account. Try not to shop with your card online unless it is with a site that offers encryption. Fighting off the specter of credit card fraud is simple, but we all have to work together to stop it for good.

While it has always been important that we look to protect our credit card information, with the rising threat of identity theft and stolen credit card numbers it is even more important that we watch for any and all warning signs coming from our credit card statements. That’s why it is so vitally important that you check your entire statement when it comes in the mail, and why it is a good idea to register online with your credit card company so that you can check in about once per week with your card to see what’s going on. But what if you feel that unauthorized charges have shown up on your bill? Here is a step by step walk through of what you should do and when you should do it.

First off, don’t panic. Finding out that your credit card numbers have been stolen is almost the same as coming home after work and finding that your home has been robbed. You will feel violated, angry and confused. But it is important to get your emotions under control as soon as you can because you now have some work to do. If you see what you believe to be unauthorized charges on your credit card statement, the first thing you need to do is to think long and hard about that transaction and what it could be. Does anyone else use your credit card, like a spouse or a teenage child? Could the charge be something you actually charged but under a different name? Remember, many times, companies will have one name on the outside of their storefront and another on your credit card bill. Check through your wallet or purse to find recent credit card receipts to ensure that it wasn’t a charge you forgot about. In today’s hectic world, it is quite common for folks to make a debit or credit charge and then completely forget about it five minutes later. Once you have exhausted all of these options, it is time to pick up the phone.

The moment that you have verified that a charge was not yours; you need to call your credit card company. Most credit card companies these days have safeguards in place that protect consumers from identity theft and stolen credit cards, but you must report any suspicious activity IMMEDIATELY or you are likely to lose whatever protection your card company offers. If you wait, even a few days, and additional charges are made to your card, you will most likely be responsible for them.

Remember to stay calm on the phone and describe what happened to the card company. If this stolen number is the result of a lost or stolen wallet, the card company will likely advise you to contact your local police, especially if they believe that an outright identity theft has taken place.

Having your credit card number stolen isn’t a fun experience, but if you stay calm and act right away, the long term impact can be minimized.

With the increased complexity of credit card statements these days, it can seem like quite a chore to navigate your way through them. What makes matters even worse is the fact that while one card company may have an innovative design to their statements, another card company may have one that looks like it’s from a bad MS Paint design from 1995. Since there is no one uniform look to credit card statements, it isn’t a surprise that many people have trouble finding the pertinent information they need from their different statements every month. Let’s take a closer look at credit card statements and see if we can find the information you need to know.

First and foremost, the single most important part of any credit card statement is the part that tells you what your balance is and what your minimum payment is, as well as when it is due. Almost all card statements print this information on multiple parts of the bill, including the area right around where you address shows through on the envelope so that you can see it as soon as you open your bill. While it is never a good idea to only pay the minimum on your credit card bill, it is better to pay the minimum than nothing at all. Next, we’ll look at the itemized charges on your bill.

With the increased threat of identity theft and the frequency of stolen credit card numbers, it is always a good idea to check your itemized transactions. This can be a process that only takes a minute or two, however if you use your card quite a bit, it can take a while. Why it is so important for you to check your transactions? Not only do you need to act right away if you feel that your card information has been stolen, but you also need to verify the fact that the transactions that you actually made processed correctly. That means looking for duplicate transactions or that the transactions you made were for the right amount. If you had any refunds that got processed to your card, make sure that they got processed as refunds and not charges. All of these things are simple, innocent mistakes that happen every day and are chalked up to human error. Of course you also need to check for signs that someone else is using your card, but the chances of these other things happening are even greater.

Finally, you should also check on your rewards that come with your credit card. Almost every credit card today has some kind of rewards package attached to it, whether it is air miles, cash back or points that apply to certain products. Every one of your credit card statements should come with a tally on how many rewards you’ve earned. You should check to make sure that your rewards are adding up correctly and also when they expire. This is especially important since many rewards expire and some credit card companies aren’t very forthcoming in telling you this since, in reality, they don’t want you to redeem them.