Your credit card—even with the chip technology—may not be as secure as you think. Wendy’s discovered a breach in security beginning late last year. Names, card numbers, and their expiration dates were compromised. So how did this happen?

Unlike small businesses, big companies are allowed to keep your credit card information on file. That’s why you see companies like Home Depot, Target and now Wendy’s being hacked.

“They have to maintain PCI compliance by doing annual audits and demonstrating that they have proper firewalls in place,” says Kristina Barrett with the Computer Crew.

Barrett says it was likely a large group that hacked into Wendy’s database. Out of 6500 locations, the breach affected around 1,000.

There is a website you can go to to check the different Wendy’s locations that you’ve been to, to see if your information has been compromised. And the only one in Mobile is the one on Airport. You can check out the website here for yourself: https://payment.wendys.com/paymentcardcheck.html.

There were no locations in Baldwin County. Barrett says using a card isn’t as safe as it used to be.

“You also have that same issue when you’re shopping online. It asks you if you want to store your data for future use,” says Barrett.

Which is a bad idea since websites can be hacked too. Pay with cash when you can and monitor your credit.

“You can’t be too careful with your credit.”

Wendy’s is offering one year of credit monitoring for free, but Barrett says they may not have the best monitoring service, they say to get your own if you’re serious about it, which they say everyone should be. Wendy’s will notify you if your information has been compromised and will work to restore your credit if damage is done.