Here is a situation for you to avoid:

You’re out with some friends on a weekend evening. Not really wanting to carry your purse around, you leave it in someone’s room. At some point during the night, someone enters the room, searches through everything in it and leaves with a few items.

Sometime later that night, you notice your credit card is missing.

Recently a scenario somewhat similar to this happened while I was out with some friends.

We had left our belongings in someone’s room, and, at some point as the night progressed, someone snuck in and stole my friend’s credit card and digital camera.

There are lots of things you can do to keep situations like this from happening, such as not carrying anything around that you will not need for the night, or leaving what you don’t need in the trunk of your own car or a trustworthy friend’s car.

Luckily for my friend, she reported the card stolen before any charges were made.

If an incident like the one I mentioned does happen, students should know what to do to keep the situation from getting any worse.

“Make a copy front and back of all your credit cards and keep them off-site,” said finance professor Diane Docking. This way, you have all the information on the card, and you still have the phone number to call and report the card stolen, Docking said.

If there are suspicious charges or errors made to your credit or debit account, reconcile the account within 60 days of the statement you receive in the mail with the error on it.

“Follow up because you could be liable for the first $50,” Docking said.

The “Consumer Handbook to Credit Protection Laws” found at federalreserve.gov says “… you could lose as much as $500 if you do not tell the card issuer within two business days after learning of loss or theft. If you do not report an unauthorized transfer that appears on your statement within 60 days after the statement is mailed to you, you risk unlimited loss on transfers made after the 60-day period.”

Keeping anything necessary to have throughout the night with us or carrying around our purses could have avoided the situation.

“Just don’t take it in with you if you don’t know the people,” Docking said, “With the old card, if they’re clever enough, they can get information. They can try to open new accounts.”

Web sites like annualcreditreport.com let you check your credit with each of the three credit bureaus for free once a year, with no credit card number necessary. If you wanted to, you could check your credit one bureau at a time, every four months. This way, you are able to monitor your credit throughout the year.

So when you’re spending your Friday nights on Greek Row or anywhere else at night, be safe. You probably don’t want to end up like my friend.