I have had my Ritz card for a little over 6 months now. This morning I get an email from my alerts saying that my card was swiped at 7:59am at "PACIFIC BELL INC." I've never heard of this before, so I googled it and it looks like it's a franchise of Taco Bell. I was driving to work at 7:59am this morning, didn't stop anywhere for food at all... nobody is an AU on my account and I have the only physical cards. The charge was for $6.21. Even though is was a small charge, I know I didn't do it... so I immediately reported it to Chase as fraud and the account was closed to prevent any further charges. The charge was still in a pending state since it happened this morning. I haven't been through this before, so my questions are...
1.) Should I have waited until the transaction posted to report it, or even reported it at all since it was such a small amount?
2.) Is reporting the fraud going to impact my credit at all?
3.) My card has never left my wallet unless I use it, then it goes right back in... and I haven't lost my wallet or let anyone else use it. How could this have happened?
Thanks
1.) Should I have waited until the transaction posted to report it, or even reported it at all since it was such a small amount?
You should always report them as soon as you see them - posted or not. Now Chase can block the charge from "batching out" and keep from having to do a chargeback on the merchant's account to get the money returned. Hopefully the merchant is an honest one - just with a poorly trained or possibly dishonest employee - and can use this to make sure his cashiers don't cause him any other problems in the future.
2.) Is reporting the fraud going to impact my credit at all?
Nope. You disputed a charge, you did not disupte a debt. It won't reflect on your credit reports at all.
3.) My card has never left my wallet unless I use it, then it goes right back in... and I haven't lost my wallet or let anyone else use it. How could this have happened?
Have you ever used it at a restaurant where the waiter takes your card away in a little black folder and then brings it back to you?
Have you ever handed it to a pizza delivery guy to "rub" an imprint of the card onto the receipt that he takes back to the shop?
Have you ever used it over the phone to order Chinese food?
Have you ever handed it to someone at a store counter who told you they were having trouble swiping it and entered the number by hand?
Have you ever ....
There are lots and lots of ways. It only takes someone half a minute with the card to write down the number and the expiration, and get the code from the back. With that information and a fairly good guess at your zip code, they can run a manual transaction on any credit card terminal that allows one, which is most of them. That's why lenders have to have large fraud departments to handle this kind of thing.
Be glad yours was for $6 - I've been hit twice, once for $800 and once for $3500. 
It's not likely that anybody wrote down your card info or made an imprint. It's much more high tech than that. They use a device that can scan your card info as you walk past the thief. It could also be stolen from any device that is used to swipe your card info. Thieves can replace the card reader with a device of thier own and steal your card info. Also, reporting fraud will not affect your credit and always report fraud as soon as you become aware of it.
Starting Score:Thanks for the replies everyone.
My concern is that the Chase rep told me that since they had to close this account, that it would show up on my credit report that it was closed, and that the new account that opens would also show up. I know closing/opening new accounts can certainly impact scores, and I don't believe she mentioned anything about a credit report being pulled, so... if what she says is accurate and the old account closure and new account opening do show up on my credit report soon, that alone won't impact my score?
Thanks