My credit card was stolen, but I found out right away thanks to Apple Pay

I already love Apple Pay, Apple's mobile payment service, because it's the easiest way to pay for things. I use it wherever it's accepted, and suggest you give it a shot if you haven't.

But I have a newfound appreciation for it because it recently saved me a lot of time, hassle, stress, and maybe even money.

For those who haven't used Apple Pay: each time one of the credit cards that's associated with Apple Pay is used, you instantly get a notification on your phone showing how much you spent and where the card was used. It's a great way to keep tabs on your account.

For example, as soon as I buy something on Amazon, a notification comes up on my phone showing me just that. (You have to turn these notifications on in the Apple Pay app.)

This brings us to a recent afternoon.

I was at work and suddenly two charges popped up on the screen of my iPhone. They were for $590.11 and $97.99, and both appeared to originate from the same company in Texas.

I'm not in Texas and had not ordered anything from Texas, so my first thought was that someone had somehow gotten hold of my card information, perhaps through skimming or the hack of a retailer where I had used my card.

Here's what the notifications looked like:

Two minutes after receiving these notifications, I was on the phone with American Express. The company immediately canceled the card, opened an investigation, and sent me a new one.

I regularly monitor my account, but only a few times each week, so without the notifications from Apple Pay, who knows how long it would have taken me - and how much money would have been charged - before I realized my account was compromised?