Reporting credit card fraud

If the credit card issuer is the one that informs you about possible fraud, there's obviously no reason to contact your issuer. However, if you suspect fraud or have some evidence of it, you'll need to report it.

Most likely, your card issuer will have you verify the last few transactions to figure out when the fraud started, says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com. Then the bank will shut down the card and give you another card with a new number on it.

Sometimes, your issuer will give you a new credit card but keep the credit card account open. In other instances, the bank will close the old account, open a new credit card account and reissue the card, says Sarah Davies, senior vice president of analytics and product management at VantageScore Solutions.

If the bank closes the old account and opens a new one, make sure the bank links the payment history from the old account to the new account on your credit report, Davies says. "It's important to retain the age of your accounts for credit scoring."