A credit card receipt that has your full account information and the expiration date on it is just as valuable to a thief as the original credit card. Anyone that obtians a credit card receipt with this information can use your information to go on a lavish spending spree at your expense.

Fraudulent purchases will be made over the phone or online. To the consumers benefit, most reputable physical and online businesses will ask for the 3 or 4 digit security code located on the back of your credit card before completing purchases. Credit card reciepts never have this code on them, therefore decreasing the amount of fraud that goes one.

As a result of the Fair and Accurate Tranactions Act, it has also become common practice for credit card receipts to only have the first four digits of your credit card account listed. However, this Act has exceptions. For example, this act does not pertain to receipts where the sole means of recording the credit card information is by imprinting a copy of the card via that blue copy paper, or when the information is hand-written in.

In some states like California, it is law that all credit card receipts list only the last five digits of the credit card account, with no expiration date.

No matter what protection the law provides, you can never be too careful when it comes to safeguarding your credit card number. Make sure you tear up any receipts that you are going to throw out. 'dumpster diggers' will go through your garbage to look for receipts that are in-tact. They will not only use the information to make fraudulent charges, they will likely steal your identity.

Keep all of your credit card and your receipts in a safe place. Once your bill comes, and you can verify all your current charges, get rid of all of your receipts by destroying them in a paper shredder.