Today - a credit card rant

[poppo]

So I go the the post office the other day to mail a package and my credit card gets declined.  Now I have had this happen before because they have a pretty tight anti-fraud thing in place and since I make a lot of on-line purchases, sometimes it gets flagged. So I call them to verify my charges and lift the block only to be told that 'some vendor' had their database compromised and even though my card had not been used for fraudulent use, they still were going to issue me a new card.

Now what really sucks is I have a zillion things linked to auto pay from this card and now I will have to change all of them once i get a new card (in 5-10 business days).  I had to do this once before when my card actually was being used for fraud, but this was just a preemptive move by the credit card company.

I can understand their logic, but IMO they should overnight you a new card. But they 'claimed' it takes 72 hours to make sure any pending charges etc. all get cleared out before they can issue the new one.

To top it off, I had someone refund me a PayPal payment that I made with that card and since PayPal always issues the refund to the card that was used, there is no telling when I will see that. What a PITA!

[brichter]

Does Paypal credit the card automatically, or leave it in their system (collecting interest) until you b!tch at them? 

And yeah, I feel your pain. My personal info was lost during the VA lost hard drive episode, the TJ Maxx database hack, and the Sallie Mae data exposure event. I've been on CreditWatch so much they oughta have a speed click for my name, and I had my CC data stolen from a gas station once, too, and that was the card that had ALL my automated payments on.

[stayouttadabunker]

I pay things the old-fashioned way....cash. 

[cowboygames]

Paypal does just hold the money in their account till you use it or transfer it to a registered bank account, so there shouldn't be any worries there

[brichter]

I pay things the old-fashioned way....cash. 

Can you fax me some? 



 

[stayouttadabunker]

I pay things the old-fashioned way....cash. 

Can you fax me some? 



 

I didn't say I actually HAD any! lol

[Foster]

I do not have nay to fax either.
I doubt that faxed money is legal tender.
Something about being copied or the like (counterfeit comes to mind).

[StatFreak]

..., and that was the card that had ALL my automated payments on.

Automated payments? What are those? Never heard of the stuff.  

Seriously, I pay my bills electronically, but have only twice, and will never again allow anyone authorization to automatically debit anything. I pay when I want, or we don't do business.

In both instances I ended up fighting the companies when they continued to take money after the service was discontinued. The bank was no help in either case. My meticulous record keeping won the day both times, but only after more effort than I ever want to deal with again.

Just my opinion. 


Stat

[knagl]

Heh, we're on opposite ends of the spectrum, StatFreak.  My mortgage finally got transferred to a new lender, so as of the end of this month, EVERY payment I have to make will be automated.  No more paper checks, no more envelopes and stamps, and no more forgetting to send a payment in time and getting a late fee (I've only had one, maybe two late fees ever and I've managed to get them waived, but I hate having to even worry about it happening).

I'm thrilled to have automated payments.  I still keep an eye on my bank account transactions (online, naturally) and check out any transaction that looks fishy, but I couldn't be happier having my utilities, credit cards, association dues, cell phone, etc. all pulling automatically.

[poppo]

Paypal does just hold the money in their account till you use it or transfer it to a registered bank account, so there shouldn't be any worries there

Not entirely true. If you make a purchase and with PayPal and used a credit card, and if a refund (using the refund link on PayPal) is made on that purchase, PayPal automatically sends the refund to the original credit card used (you have no choice in this matter). I complained about this in another thread because it takes them several days to do it, when it should be nearly instantaneous with EFT. In this case, they will be attempting to send the refund to a closed account. The credit card company said it should get applied to the new account automatically, but I'll believe it when I see it. I also called PayPal and they also said that is what should happen, but that it's possible it will get rejected. And if so, I will have to get my credit card company to fix it, since they will not just stick it in my PayPal account.

[poppo]

..., and that was the card that had ALL my automated payments on.

Automated payments? What are those? Never heard of the stuff.  

Seriously, I pay my bills electronically, but have only twice, and will never again allow anyone authorization to automatically debit anything. I pay when I want, or we don't do business.

In both instances I ended up fighting the companies when they continued to take money after the service was discontinued. The bank was no help in either case. My meticulous record keeping won the day both times, but only after more effort than I ever want to deal with again.

Just my opinion.  


Stat

I use my credit card for automatic payments for two reasons. First so that I don't have to worry about anything getting paid. It's all paperless and automatic. Since I am using a credit card, I don't really have to worry about fraud, or too much being taken out as I can always dispute it (and not pay the disputed amount). This is different from having it taken directly from my bank account which can be more risky.

Secondly I pay my credit card in full every month and rack up tons of points. Since I use the card for everything I can think of, I usually get a $50 gift card every couple of months with the points and never pay a dime in interest. I'm one of the people the credit card companies hate.  

The downside is when something like this happens, I have to change the info in all of my auto pay accounts and hope none of them will be due before I get the new card so I don;t have to use a different one.

[tjkeller]

Seriously, I pay my bills electronically, but have only twice, and will never again allow anyone authorization to automatically debit anything. I pay when I want, or we don't do business.

 

I do tons of business online it seems but as far as Bill Payment, with the exception of Rent, I pay all Bills online also, but like Stat, I pay on MY terms. AutoPay doesn't always match up
with Pay Day especially if you have a lot of different Auto Pay dates. Plus, by ME authorizing each Payment I make, I am forcing myself to be aware of my spending and budget my $$$. 

[dale]

Heh, we're on opposite ends of the spectrum, StatFreak.  My mortgage finally got transferred to a new lender, so as of the end of this month, EVERY payment I have to make will be automated.  No more paper checks, no more envelopes and stamps, and no more forgetting to send a payment in time and getting a late fee (I've only had one, maybe two late fees ever and I've managed to get them waived, but I hate having to even worry about it happening).

I'm thrilled to have automated payments.  I still keep an eye on my bank account transactions (online, naturally) and check out any transaction that looks fishy, but I couldn't be happier having my utilities, credit cards, association dues, cell phone, etc. all pulling automatically.

The problem with Automatic Mortgage payments is they only make your original minimum payment. I have rentals and to pay them off faster I make larger payments that go all to principal. I also do this with my residence. Sometimes the payment will vary because of late rent, maintenance and the ever popular 'I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today".

[poppo]

I do tons of business online it seems but as far as Bill Payment, with the exception of Rent, I pay all Bills online also, but like Stat, I pay on MY terms. AutoPay doesn't always match up
with Pay Day especially if you have a lot of different Auto Pay dates. Plus, by ME authorizing each Payment I make, I am forcing myself to be aware of my spending and budget my $$$.  

Nearly all of my 'automatic' bills are the same amount every month. And again, since I am using a credit card for the payments, all I have to do is dispute the amount if something is not right (one click of a mouse right on-line). Ironically the only bill I actually have to pay manually is the credit card. But that is only because I pay the balance in full. If I wanted to pay the minimum, I could do that on auto pay too from my bank.

As for a 'budget' IMO this actually makes it easier since I only have one place to look to see how much I have spent. And while I don't need to worry about things matching up with a pay day, having them all go to to a credit card makes it not matter when it gets billed.

[brichter]

..., and that was the card that had ALL my automated payments on.

Automated payments? What are those? Never heard of the stuff.  

Seriously, I pay my bills electronically, but have only twice, and will never again allow anyone authorization to automatically debit anything. I pay when I want, or we don't do business.

In both instances I ended up fighting the companies when they continued to take money after the service was discontinued. The bank was no help in either case. My meticulous record keeping won the day both times, but only after more effort than I ever want to deal with again.

Just my opinion. 


Stat

My credit union covers 100% of all fraudulent transactions on my card, with never more than a single question: "Did you authorize this specific transaction?" That's one of the advantages of getting away from banks. They may ask for some more information, like when I canceled the account, but there's never any problem. Heck, they called me one Monday to ask if I had made $900 worth of withdrawals over the weekend, I told them no, and within 15 minutes the money was back in my account.

Compare that behavior to Wells Fargo, who processed an ATM deposit but couldn't read the account number written on the back of the check (For Deposit Only - nnnnn), so they credited the deposit to my account, then deducted the $600 from my account when the check bounced. The person making the deposit withdrew $300 from the account when depositing the check, so I was out $300.

There's no way that anything like this should ever happen, as each deposit is made with an ATM card and a PIN, but Wells didn't care, it was up to me to prove that I didn't deposit that check. The only assistance they would give me was to send me a picture of the check, then it took 2 more weeks of me fighting with them that not only was the account number not mine, but the name on the check and the signature both were not mine. It was so preposterous to me that they could screw it up that bad, that I actually filed a fraud case against them with the county sheriff. Those charges were dropped, but it got them off my butt.


I trust my CU, and they've never failed to show me that trust is well-founded.

[poppo]

Well, there was a silver lining to all of this. LOL. My CC company overnighted me the new card and it actually showed up. After going on-line and registering it on the bank's web site, all of my other charges transfered over properly except one. I had bought a gift certificate to an establishment for a family member, and it turns out they could not use it (logistical issues). It was non-refundable and non-transferable.  So I was going to be out $150.   BUT it turns out that that the charge actually hit right after the account was closed and got declined. So now I have an extra $150 to spend on more slot junk I don't need.