It is inevitable: Your debit card will be compromised some day. What happens when my debit card is stolen?

Money will be taken out of your account
Your bank may call you or you must call your bank when you find out
The Zero Liability Policy will kick in
The money will be returned to your account in short order
Any insufficient fund charges will be removed by your bank
You will be inconvenienced

In this episode five individuals share the experiences of when their card(s) were compromised.
It is not a matter of "if" but "when"
More than 40 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen in a Target data breach and  almost 350,000 from Neiman Marcus - just in the past 9 months. Nobody is immune.

My wife and I have had three debit cards stolen in a 2 year period. Convenience stores and a hotel room in Vegas were the odd purchases that scammers used my numbers for - except that it was fraud and the Zero Liability Policies kicked in and took care of the problem for me.

Your card will be hit some day. You can take steps to protect your card like being aware of who you give your card to (waitress, over-the-phone salesmen) and where you use the card (ATM in an unusual place) but you can't keep it from being compromised.
How to prepare for a stolen debit card
There are things you can do to reduce the damage:

Set up alerts with your bank. Have your bank text you whenever more than $100 is spent (recommendation by Justin)
Balance your checkbook (recommendation by Deacon Bradley)
Have an emergency fund (preferably at a separate bank)

Be prepared - but don't be worried. This type of thing happens every day. You'll live through it.
Real life stories from real life debit card holders
In this episode I interview five people who have had their debit cards stolen - some of them had this happen more than once!

How did they find out? What did they have to do? How much did they lose?

Listen to the first 20 minutes of this episode to find out:

Testimonies from:

Ahmad
Deacon Bradley from LifeStoked.com
Justin from Chicago
Tom Collins
Keith Bunn from CavusFinancialCoaching.com

Debt Free Success Story from Tara and Brian
After 20 months Tara and Brian are DEBT FREE! They paid off $33,000 in 20 months and are now saving for a surprise for their boys (shhhh, don't tell them).

Tara was one of the five lucky winners of the coaching packages I gave away in January 2013. They did the work, stuck to the plan, and used YNAB all the way!

Note: Tara is an extremely talented photographer. She travels all over the country to capture these amazing photos. Unbelievable.
Steve's recent appearances
Smartphones Made Easy podcast episode 2: 10 Real Things You Can Do To Save or Make Money With Your Smartphone
Ray and I talked about ways to save money with your cell phone.
Money Mastermind Ep7: Can you get by without credit (and would you want to)
Five financial bloggers invited me to join their roundtable discussion. The best part was around the 41:00 mark of the Money Mastermind video. Check it out

Upcoming appearances
Podcast Movement in Dallas August 15-17, 2014. Let me know if you are in the area - I would love to meet you!

Financial Blogger Conference in New Orleans September 19 - 20, 2014. Average Joe Money and I will be hosting a listener meetup - PLEASE COME JOIN US!  Contact me for details.

You Will Thrive: Starting in early August, this series taught by Joelle Samples and Valerie Groth will help you create the life of your dreams. I will be joining them on September 4th, 2014.
Contact me for interviews or speaking events
Could your company or audience use some common sense instruction on how to manage their finances? Contact me for speaking events or interviews.