Identity Theft......

laquanharris

Hello fellow Knotties.....

I am planning a destination wedding In Punta Cana, DR. I am so very worried  about just giving out my Credit card information, especially to someone in a different country. Has any one out there had this concern? or am I being a worry wart? 

Lwaryjas

Im doing a DW in the states but this was a concern of mine as well.  I would recommend getting a separate CC just for the wedding so you can easily track expenses and cancel if need be.

princessleia22

 Lwaryjas said:

Im doing a DW in the states but this was a concern of mine as well.  I would recommend getting a separate CC just for the wedding so you can easily track expenses and cancel if need be.

This is basically what we did. FI and I each opened a new credit card to be used for wedding expenses and out of country charges. We put all our wedding expenses on these credit cards then pay them off immediately after each charge. That way we get the benefit of the added protection, but aren't going into debt for it.  We made sure to get ones that don't have any international usage charges. And if you get one with rewards, even better. FMIL got an airline reward card to pay for all their travel/hotel charges to our wedding and built up enough points to pay for all their flights (she also paid for FI's sister & her family). 

And certainly do not use a debit card, because it won't have same protections as a credit card will. If debit gets hacked, they can take all your cash from your account and it can take weeks to refund, if the back will even do (they usually will refund but aren't required to). If credit card gets hacked, it doesn't affect your actual cash and there are better protections in place for you.

And for when you are actually out of country, it's good if you each have a separate card or if you have a second backup credit card, in case something does happens while you are there (fraud or lost card), so you have a secondary, relatively safe means to pay for things.

But, credit card is probably your safest means of international payment. Just make sure to check statements and the account regularly and try to verify that you are doing business with reputable companies (which can be hard to verify sometimes).  So far, I've had pretty good luck, but we also have backups in place in case something were to happen.