More credit card care could help avoid financial fraud

A new study by financial advice website Moneyfacts.co.uk has revealed that many students are putting themselves in danger of suffering financial fraud and that they could avoid this by being more cautious.

Moneyfacts carried out a survey of more than 800 students at the University of East Anglia, finding that 73 per cent insufficiently destroy used card receipts and old bank statements before throwing them away.

Students should also be more careful with their pin number, Moneyfacts states, reporting that 46 per cent of students admitted to allowing other people use their card.

Some 29 per cent use the same number for all of their cards and 27 per cent keep a record of it somewhere, such as in their mobile phone or in a wallet or purse.

These liberties are taken by many students despite the fact that financial fraud is very common, as 34 per cent know a fellow student who has been a victim and ten per cent have suffered some form of fraud or identity theft themselves.

Commenting on the matter of financial fraud, Andrew Hagger, head of news and press at Moneyfacts, said: “The financial institutions and the industry as a whole can’t afford to take their feet off the pedal; they need to hammer the ’safe banking message home at every opportunity.”

The findings of the Moneyfacts survey were not all negative, however, as 72 per cent of students said that they memorise their pin numbers and then destroy the slip, while 54 per cent said that they never let anyone else use their card.