Tips for victims of Target’s credit card breach

Holiday shopping just got more dangerous: Roughly 40 million credit card and debit card accounts may have been comprised following a data breach at Target stores.

The breach is the latest in a series of security breaches that have hit retailers and consumers in the past few years.

First the good news—yes, there actually is some—for shoppers: Consumers whose credit cards were compromised should be relatively unscathed. In general, credit card companies hold cardholders responsible for up to $50 of unauthorized credit card transactions, and often times they waive that amount as well.

The consequences are more dire for debit cards. Consumers often have a difficult time getting banks to refund the cash that was illegally withdrawn from their checking account. And they can face losing all the funds in their checking account if they don't report the theft fast enough to their bank.

When the actual card isn't stolen (like in this case) but the account is used fraudulently, cardholders are not responsible for those transactions if they report the activity within 60 days of receiving their statement, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Regardless of which card was impacted, consumers can take several steps to protect their accounts.

• Contact the issuers of the cards that you used at Target in the last few weeks and ask them to change your account number and to issue you a new card.
• Monitor your accounts for a while. Identity thieves often hold off on using stolen card information in the first few weeks or even months following a data breach.
• With debit cards, check your account online on a daily basis for suspicious activity and report it immediately to the bank.
• Also, don't respond to emails asking for personal information. Card issuers will never ask for that online.
• Consider checking your credit reports — which show all your loans and credit cards — to make sure new accounts aren't fraudulently being opened. Consumers can check their credit report for free every 12 months at AnnualCreditReport.com.

This article originally appeared on Marketwatch.

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