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Stop anybody in Ireland and ask them if they have a credit card, 9 times out of 10 the answer will be yes or even that they own several. The days of physical hard cash have faded into the past, as money is traded through machines as digits of ones and zeros. Just look at the checkout counters at your local supermarket, there’s likely to be a credit card only lane or express checkout that deals in digital currency, speeding up the whole payment process and getting you home in time for tea. In short, credit cards have made our lives much more convenient and our pockets less bulky; there’s no more ‘oops I forgot to bring enough money’ as you have a back up supply of extra funds always on hand.

The biggest worry to credit card users in Ireland today is ‘information pirates’. This describes anyone that uses illegal tactics to learn all of your personal information and gain access to your credit card or even steal your identity and open a new credit card account. Fortunately when you you apply for a credit card in Ireland you get a set of solid tamper proof safe guards in place, which have been designed with you in mind. But it is still advisable to take certain precautions, as new technologies are being developed by the pirates all the time and they are cleverer than you think.

The two popular methods used to steal your information is either by gradually learning about the victim; finding out their name, address, mothers name, fathers name and so on until they have a full profile of you. Make sure you shred any sensitive data, shredders are not that expensive, and can potentially save you a fortune in the long run, or alternatively stop using paper bills and statements; try and make the switch to paperless bank statements as this reduces your paper trail and helps keep Ireland tidy!

The second technique is to hack your home internet network and use key loggers to record your information, as well as your online banking usernames and passwords. This second method can only be done if your computer has been infected with a virus, which usually infects a victim’s computer after opening an email and clicking on a link or picture. Make sure you have appropriate firewalls and virus protectors in place. Never open a link from an un-trusted source.

Never give out your personal information over the internet, especially on MSN messenger or the online social networks. When banking online, always make sure that the website is the official banks site, do this by checking the address at the top of your browser, if the URL has an ‘s’ after the http then you know it’s a secure connection.

Most of all trust in your intuition; if you have a feeling that something is not right then leave and report your worries to the service provider.