Subject: credit cards in Europe
Greetings all and happy new year:

We returned to the U.S. in early October from a wonderful trip and jumped into our regular routine. We were busy with the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays and imagine my surprise mid-December to receive a phone call from the Fraud Division of VISA informing me that someone was doing their Christmas shopping using my VISA. The card was immediately cancelled and we are not liable for items charged to the account. The person with whom I spoke said they were pretty sure a card had been made using our numbers. I know how easy it is to take the carbons or just get the numbers. Has anyone else had a similar problem; how do you handle paying with a credit card. In restaurants the cards is sometimes taken from the table to the machine etc. Other than paying with cash - any suggestions. This is not, by far, our first European trip and while we have had our pockets picked before, this has never happened.

Sincerely, Barb in Grand Rapids.