Tips for Busy Sales Travelers: Watch Your Credit Cards and Hotel Keys

Summer travel season is in high gear, and business travel never stops. Credit cards, hotel room keys, receipts–there’s so much to keep track of. Make sure you’re the one keeping track of your personal information, and not someone else.

Travel Tips

I received great tips recently from Tracy Congdon at International Payments Corporation. He shared some startling information that busy sales people (and leisure travelers) must know:

• Hotel Key Cards: The key cards you receive in hotels contain your entire credit or debit card information that you used to hold your room. I used to turn them in, thinking I was saving plastic and that the hotel could then re-use the card for another guest. Never again. Now I take the hotel key cards home and shred them.

• Credit Cards: When we’re in a restaurant, we hand a complete stranger our credit card and hope the only thing we just bought was our meal.  According to FACTA law (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), your receipt as well as the business copy should not contain your entire credit card number, nor the last four digits and expiration date. These put you at risk and the business in direct violation of the FACTA law, which falls under the FTC.

Bottom Line: Pay as much attention to your plastic as you pay to your clients and your sales activities. Keep your personal information safe and secure–no matter what season.