Thrifty Loans

New statistics have shown that credit card fraud abroad is on the rise, and holidaymakers have been warned to be on their guard.

UK payment associations Apacs said that in 2006 the amount of fraud committed on UK credit cards came to a total of £118.2m – up £36m on the figure for 2005.

This rise in fraud abroad has come about partly because more travellers are choosing to use their credit and debit cards overseas. In 2006 card use reached £23bn. It seems that people prefer to use their cards despite the risk of fraud and the high charges levied on their use outside of the UK.

Apacs has now published a consumer advice guide to give overseas travellers some tips on how to prevent fraud on their card. The increase in overseas fraud has come just when there has been a notable decrease in the UK, where the introduction of chip and pin technology has been successful in driving card crime down. The amount stolen using credit, debit and store cards in the UK fell by 3% last year to £428m, its lowest level for three years. However, part of the overseas fraud figure does originate in the UK as card details have been stolen there and then used abroad.

Some high street banks now automatically block the use of a card abroad unless the cardholder has told them in advance that they are planning to use the card away from home.

In 2006, the USA headed the league table of the highest fraud amounts on UK cards at £16.7m. This was followed by France (£7.5m), Spain (£6.7m), Italy (£6.4m) and Thailand (£4.1m). There are no plans to introduce chip and pin in the United States, despite fraud theft on cards rising by 49%. As a demonstration of its effectiveness, the technology is being rolled out in France and Spain where card fraud crime fell by 35% and 30% respectively.