IT IS NEVER A GOOD DAY WHEN YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR DEBIT CARD NUMBER
The following is an excerpt from an APA contribution. I don't know yet if I have time to sneak it into the current distribution or if it won't go out until the December issue, but I wanted to float it out here while my indignation is still hot.
Thursday of last week I got a call from an online vendor to let me know my debit card had been declined. I read-off the card information to the clerk [three times!] and eventually it was accepted. I thought no more about this until Saturday, when the card was declined again. Twice. At two different local merchants. I wrote checks for my purchases and went home to write myself a Note to go to the bank first-thing Monday to find out Why This Happened.
The bank clerk was able to verify that their Fraud Detection department had spotted a suspicious purchase and put a lock on the card. Someone had ganked my card number and tried to spend $500-odd at a Home Depot, and another $12 or so at Chick-Fil-A. Now, there ISN’T a Home Depot in Starkville, and I don’t agree with C-F-A’s CEO’s anti-rainbow rants, so I don’t encourage him financially.
So on advice from the Fraud department clerk, I took my debit card back to the bank clerk, and we did the necessary to cancel my fubar’d card number and order me a new number. It is going to be about 10 business days until I get the new card, so I got a supply of ca$h with which to buy gasoline as I drive to Atlanta this coming weekend for the GAFIA housefilk. I just hope I have the new card by the middle of NEXT week when I drive to Dallas for FenCon!
Thursday of last week I got a call from an online vendor to let me know my debit card had been declined. I read-off the card information to the clerk [three times!] and eventually it was accepted. I thought no more about this until Saturday, when the card was declined again. Twice. At two different local merchants. I wrote checks for my purchases and went home to write myself a Note to go to the bank first-thing Monday to find out Why This Happened.
The bank clerk was able to verify that their Fraud Detection department had spotted a suspicious purchase and put a lock on the card. Someone had ganked my card number and tried to spend $500-odd at a Home Depot, and another $12 or so at Chick-Fil-A. Now, there ISN’T a Home Depot in Starkville, and I don’t agree with C-F-A’s CEO’s anti-rainbow rants, so I don’t encourage him financially.
So on advice from the Fraud department clerk, I took my debit card back to the bank clerk, and we did the necessary to cancel my fubar’d card number and order me a new number. It is going to be about 10 business days until I get the new card, so I got a supply of ca$h with which to buy gasoline as I drive to Atlanta this coming weekend for the GAFIA housefilk. I just hope I have the new card by the middle of NEXT week when I drive to Dallas for FenCon!