You don't have to lose your credit card to have it stolen

The story

I've lived in the UK and New Zealand before moving to Canada and, about eight years ago, I was the victim of a credit card hack in the UK. Normally you believe that people will hack your card number online to use it far overseas, but they'd attempted to make a £400 purchase at Tesco, a British grocery store chain.

In Canada, just last year, I had my Canadian credit card hacked, and somebody had successfully used it in a Pizza shop right here in the city I live in.

This was the event that spurred me on to get a VPN, review the way I use the internet, and review my passwords.

The consequence was a disturbance of my daily routine. Having your cards canceled means waiting for the replacement cards to come in the mail, which means putting payment methods on hold until they arrive.