Exceedingly Mundane

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Jun
08
Posted by Stace

CC Woes

Been awhile since my last post. Lots of topics I could post about. I’m going to *try* to be better about blogging, but we’ll see. I seem to be enjoying the “micro-blogging” of Twitter and Facebook status updates better lately. Easier to be brief and just as mundane 😀

Anyway, thought I’d jump back in the fray with a post about our credit card woes. Like most of America, we have a couple of cards that we use regularly. We don’t carry credit card debt, so we’re very lucky in that respect. I monitor and pay our credit cards online and it’s usually a very seamless process.

About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I noticed a charge on our account that did not belong to us. Just one, for about $120 dollars. No others before or since. I called the credit card company then to dispute it, and they issued me a temporary credit while they investigated the matter. I noticed today that the charge was back with a note of “reversal of credit” beside the line item. Sigh. So, after a lengthy call, they have closed our account due to “fraud”. What I want to know is how or why someone in a totally different state is charging their electric utility bill to my credit card? Or why they can’t just stop it without closing my account and issuing me a new account number and cards? I know it’s a small price to pay, but it is inconvenient to have to wait on a new card to arrive in the mail and be without it for a week or two. It’s also going to be inconvenient to notify every company and account that I have tied to this card, online and brick and mortar and get a new number established. Oh well, it could be much worse. Our card was not stolen and there was only the one charge. 🙂

So, how about you? Have you ever had trouble with your credit cards? Vote in the poll or leave me a comment. Oh, and have a great day!!!!

[poll id=”14″]

  1. Gail Said,

    Yes, we’ve had charges on our card that weren’t ours. I was probably at your house one of those times when I spent time on the phone trying to get it taken care of….it is a hassle! It actually happened 3 months in a row, one charge each month. When they closed our acct to start another one, they over nighted the new card to us. You should ask for that b/c it is inconvenient to be without. I did have to go get cash once when traveling and didn’t have the card.
    I’m not sure we ever figured out how someone got our number, but I think it’s fairly easily done from what people have told me. Sorry that happened! Were they able to trace it to find out who did it? It seems like if it went to pay an electric bill there should be a name on an acct somewhere for them to find!

  2. Lynne Said,

    I had that happen once. There were about 4 charges in one day, all coming from California. I called our CC company, they immediately took off the charges, then closed the account and opened a new one. I had the cards within 2 days.

    I check our statements daily online to see what charges are on there, and if anything looks at all suspicious, I call the company.

    I also notify the company if we’re going to be out of the area so they’ll expect charges from a different location. Or if there will be a large amount charged so they won’t deny the charge. I’ve used this company and card for years and they’ve always been great.

  3. Debi Said,

    Sorry you’ve had to deal with this, Stacy! What a pain! But I am glad it’s getting cleared up!

    Weird…just last night Rich got a call about a suspicious charge on his debit card. It was a charge for $1.63. We were impressed that they caught it. The woman told him that they suspect that the person tried a small charge to see if the number worked, and when they find out it does they would start using the card. So of course they canceled his card and he’s without it for 10-ish days. Unfortunately, he uses his debit card to pay for everything. But better the hassle of going into the bank to get cash to use than having someone else spending what little money we have!

  4. Dianne Said,

    UGh, sorry about that. I have us signed up online with our credit card and I do check it regularly so there are (hopefully) no surprises when we get the bill. I’m sure we’re still vulnerable, siince we do quite a bit of online shopping. I try to use paypal whenever I can.

    I hope it all works out – frustrating.

  5. Desert Songbird Said,

    Sounds to me like someone put in the wrong credit card number for a recurring charge rather than someone using your card for fraudulent purposes (i.e., they would be using it more often and without a regular pattern). Either way, the inconvenience is to you and Tim, which sucks.

  6. mamichelle Said,

    Look at the results! Wow. Yes, I have had fraudulent charges on my accounts.

    1. I noticed a 1.99 charge on my Amex. We are like you, Stace. We don’t carry balances. We pay off every month. Anyway, I just happened to notice this little charge and I had no idea what it was for. I called Amex and they said it was fraudulent. I asked why anyone would bother with 1.99 and they said if they did it to 500,000 customers, it would certainly add up and most people wouldn’t notice the tiny charge. I’m so glad I did.

    2. I had a charge for a laptop and also for Ancestry.com on my cc. I wondered how anyone could get my number and I started to believe it was either my son’s friends at the house unsupervised or the painters who we trusted completely. I was sick over it. Then I found out the laptop came to the door! I really thought it was the painters because they were there for over a week and they knew we wouldn’t be home. I called the cc co. and they confirmed it was ordered from Brazil. I asked why it would be overnighted to my house. They informed me that it’s typical to place the order and reroute quickly. Apparently they didn’t catch mine on time. I was so thankful it wasn’t anyone I trusted prior to that!

    Sorry this happened to you. It’s a very good reason for checking each and every charge.

  7. Karen Said,

    I’ve had my cc # stolen twice for the same card. Once, the charges were local, another time in Europe. It’s so aggravating. It was for a debit card. I’ve since learned not to ever use a debit card when at a restaurant or somewhere that the card is taken out of your sight to be scanned. I doubt this is foolproof, but apparently it helps.

  8. cam Said,

    That stinks, Stacy.
    We had fraudulent charge *attempts* on our debit card a few years back. The bank caught it and froze our account. UNFORTUNATELY, the timing of this coincided with a solo vacation trip to Destin—and I use debit for everything, and so didn’t have any cash at all with me. It was my first night there, and I was at the big outlet mall, and went to buy a pair of sunglasses. The charge wouldn’t go through. I kept making the clerk re-try, because I knew we had plenty of money in our account. It was embarrassing! I went back to the car and called Philip, who called the bank and found out that they’d just frozen our account. The attempted charges were from Romania. :-O He told them his wife was away on vacation and had no way to buy anything. They apologized and said that the new cards would be sent within a week. It was very frustrating!
    Luckily, and very thankfully, I had our “emergency” credit card in my wallet. We don’t keep a balance on it and only use it for emergencies such as this. It was a LIFESAVER on that trip! Otherwise, I would’ve had to go home, or have Philip drive over and bring me cash (it’s 50 miles away).
    The only glitch was, once I started making a bunch of sudden charges on that credit card, the bank froze IT for a few hours! Philip called them and told them it was ME using it, because my debit card was frozen. LOL! So luckily they were able to lift that immediately. Whew!

  9. DawnK Said,

    Yes, we had that same issue a few months ago. They also closed out our card and issued new ones. Have already made all the changes involved. Yes, it was a pain and fraudulent charges were all dropped from the account, too. Ugh. Sorry it happened to you. No matter on new credit card numbers. Have memorized new numbers, just as easily. Freezing credit card in block of ice won’t work for me. The numbers are all in my head! LOL!

    Recently read all 3 Alaskan Quest books and couldn’t put them down. Thought the third one dragged on a bit. (just bring the guys home already! – Whispers of Winter #3) Today, I finished Whisper of the Bayou. Read it over the last 2 days. Could not put that one down either. Has interesting plot twists at the end and made me want to go to Louisiana.

    Next on the list is Sweetgum Knit Lit Society. It’s a book about a group that reads and knits! LOL! This is about the 4th time I’ve had it home from the library and this time I’m really going to read it. After that, either Unlikely Lavender Queen or My Sister’s Keeper. Both come highly recommended by my kids.

  10. Heidi @ ggip Said,

    I had my credit card company change my card number one time just because the card was old. it was a hassle, but I understand why they did it. I hope yours gets worked out!!

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