Credit Card Advice

Credit Card Theft is a funny thing.  Just possessing stolen credit card can still be enough to get somebody in trouble.  It used to be that a person had to commit an actual larceny to be convicted of a crime.  With the Internet, the use of credit cards online, and identity theft, credit card theft is now often covered under a more general crime of identify theft.

Consumers are protected by consumers’ protection acts that limit how much they are on the hook if somebody steals their credit card.  Somebody still has to pay for all that fraud.  The Bank where you apply for a credit card is usually responsible for the bad debt or fraudulent purchases. In the US, The Department of Homeland Security reports that credit card fraud could be as much as $500 million dollars a year.  Credit card fraud in the UK was estimated to be 535 million pounds in 2006.

In the US, understanding the difference between felony and misdemeanour is easiest explained by the time spent in jail.  Generally, if you do something so bad that you end up in jail more than a year, you must have committed a felony.  Everything else are called misdemeanours.  Crossing the line to a felony means losing rights even after the felon puts time in behind bars.  Felons often face restrictions when travelling abroad, and lose the right to run for public office or carry firearms.  Countries that do not use this distinction use some other form of categorization.  In the UK and the Republic of Ireland, crimes are categorized as summary offences and indictable offences.

In the US, both federal and state law determines what can happen to a person who commits credit card theft. Federally, credit card theft falls under the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act in 1998.  Offenses under this law can carry up to thirty years in prison (definitely a felony). In order to be charged federally, the crime has to meet certain requirements.  Two examples are crossing state lines or mailed through the US postal service.

State law varies regarding how credit card theft is handled.  Usually the following information is used in determining if state law will charge the person with a misdemeanour or a felony:

• How much did he or she charge with the stolen credit card?  In many states in the US, if the amount is over $300, the charge crosses from being a misdemeanour to being a felony.
• What kind of criminal record, if any, did the person have before committing credit card fraud?  In some states, the charge for the first time somebody commits credit card fraud is a misdemeanour.  The second time they do it, they receive a felony charge.

Besides getting incarcerated, people found guilty of credit card fraud will usually have to pay fines and may be required to do community service after they serve their time.