monophoto
Member
Like most people, my wife and I carry a credit cards, both for the convenience of not having to deal with cash, and also because of the 'cash back' feature that provides a small additional discount every time we use the card.
I am very diligent about checking my credit card account every day to make sure that I recognize every transaction (and checking with my wife if I see something that I don't immediately recognize - she deals with some really strange-sounding vendors). I also take advantage of the automatic alerts offered by the credit card company to tell me whenever there is a charge in excess of a specified dollar threshold, if there is a web or telephone charge, or if there is a charge from a foreign vendor.
Last night, I received an alert that a charge had been recorded against my card from a vendor that I didn't immediately recognize. So I called the bank immediately to ask for more information - all that they could tell me was that it appeared to have been from a restaurant that uses PayPal to process charges. Since I didn't recognize the name of the restaurant (and we haven't been to a restaurant in several days), and the amount was significant, I advised the bank that the charge appeared to be fraudulent or erroneous.
OK - that worked well!
But then the bank advised that their response would be to cancel my credit card and issue a new card with a different number - which I won't receive for several days. So it's now a weekend and my credit card has been cancelled. Aarghhh!
And more frustration - there are a number of vendors who have my credit card number and who I now will have to notify of the change. Fortunately, when this happened to me several years ago I made a list of the vendors that I have to contact. The good news is that most of those notifications can be done on-line. But the bad news is that I am facing the challenge of trying to hack my way through each of those web sites to find where they have hidden the credit card information. And I will have to remember the passwords that I used in setting up those accounts - another source of frustration.
Sometimes the modern conveniences are anything but convenient!
I am very diligent about checking my credit card account every day to make sure that I recognize every transaction (and checking with my wife if I see something that I don't immediately recognize - she deals with some really strange-sounding vendors). I also take advantage of the automatic alerts offered by the credit card company to tell me whenever there is a charge in excess of a specified dollar threshold, if there is a web or telephone charge, or if there is a charge from a foreign vendor.
Last night, I received an alert that a charge had been recorded against my card from a vendor that I didn't immediately recognize. So I called the bank immediately to ask for more information - all that they could tell me was that it appeared to have been from a restaurant that uses PayPal to process charges. Since I didn't recognize the name of the restaurant (and we haven't been to a restaurant in several days), and the amount was significant, I advised the bank that the charge appeared to be fraudulent or erroneous.
OK - that worked well!
But then the bank advised that their response would be to cancel my credit card and issue a new card with a different number - which I won't receive for several days. So it's now a weekend and my credit card has been cancelled. Aarghhh!
And more frustration - there are a number of vendors who have my credit card number and who I now will have to notify of the change. Fortunately, when this happened to me several years ago I made a list of the vendors that I have to contact. The good news is that most of those notifications can be done on-line. But the bad news is that I am facing the challenge of trying to hack my way through each of those web sites to find where they have hidden the credit card information. And I will have to remember the passwords that I used in setting up those accounts - another source of frustration.
Sometimes the modern conveniences are anything but convenient!