We may not always be terribly concerned with the amount of spending we do on our plastic cards, but it appears we are getting far too slack about our credit card and debit card security.

A survey of 4,000 members of the consumer association Which? found that nearly 50% use just one PIN for all their cards. And over half used their mother's maiden name as a security password.

Which? said those of us that did this, were failing to take basic security precautions when using our credit cards and debit cards in shops or on the internet. They also pointed out that half the people in their survey didn't even bother checking that a website was secure before buying their items online!

That's not an especially bright thing; after all there are all kinds of dodgy sites on the internet.

Martyn Hocking, editor of Which? Money commented on their findings:

"There's a lot more people can do to prevent fraud occurring. Shredding documents and checking your bank statements are a good start, but people need to be wise to basic fraud risks such as using their mother's maiden name as a password, or shopping on websites that aren't secure."

Many financial organisations and websites invite you to register using your mother's maiden name as a possible password. And many people find it hard to remember more than one or two PIN. But Which? say this level of security is just not good enough as a spokesman said:

"If someone wants to steal your identity it can be possible to discover your mother's name before she got married. And using just one PIN for several cards obviously exposes you if you have the details of any card stolen from you."

Over the last few years, there has been a big focus on preventing ID fraud and people have been warned about protecting personal data, as well as passwords and PINs.

The Which? survey suggests that at least part of that message is getting through, especially as over 30% of people in the survey had suffered some theft from their bank accounts or credit cards.

But most claimed they tried to shield their PIN when using a public ATM in public, checked their account statements for dodgy transactions, and tore up or shredded statements so the information on them would be useless if stolen.

So, would you say you are up on your credit card protection or are you a credit card security slacker?

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