May 19, 2009

Missing

Kyle took Jack to a baseball game for a few hours and I should be excited for this uninterrupted time in which to be productive. Instead, I'm just stressed out because of the FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS MISSING FROM MY BANK ACCOUNT!

That's right. Someone used my name to purchase $500 of golf equipment. I called the bank and they said I needed to first call the company that charged my card. The company, of course, told me I needed to handle it with my bank. I pushed the customer service agent a little and they agreed to try and stop the shipment of the items today so that they could refund my money. So now I'm waiting for a call to verify whether or not they can do that. If they can't, I have to fill out an affidavit and it can take 30 - 60 days to get my money back. I don't know about you, but for us, losing $500 for that long hurts.

This is so frustrating.

It's the card that Kyle keeps in his wallet and we use it when we're out and about. He checked and he still has the card, so it wasn't stolen. And to those of you who are fearful to use credit or debit cards online . . . please know that this card is the one that is never used online. Seriously, the internet is the safest place to use a credit card, as long as the site is secure (which most reputable sites are).

Think about it . . . when you pay at a restaurant, the waiter disappears with your card for 5 - 10 minutes. He could totally write all of your information down. In person transactions are the only times when actual humans handle your information.

It's exactly how I feel about paying for things online, too. Online, I put my bank account info in, it's encrypted and no one at the given business really sees any of it. If I send a check, there's an actual human being who at least takes the check out of the envelope and has access to ALL of my checking information.

I had this happen one other time about 8 or 9 years ago on my credit card. The information was stolen by a gas station attendent who told me he had to manually fill out a credit card slip because the machine wasn't working. That may have been true, but he also kept the information for himself and proceeded to purchase a cell phone and ring up quite a bill . . . pardon the pun.

Ok, I'm going to try and and get my mind off of this and on to something else.

4 comments:

ann said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

ugh...that's awful!

i, too, feel much more secure shopping online with all of the encryption, etc. vs. at a store.

i hope you get this sorted out quickly.

alex said...

sorry. that's all i can think to say.

Sarah said...

THAT STINKS!!! I totally agree with you that internet transactions are safer, vs. restaurant transactions. At one time, I was going to become better about using cash at restaurants for that very reason, but I'm such a credit card only girl that I haven't done very well with the cash thing. And I HATE using checks. HeLLOOOO, your routing & account numbers are RIGHT THERE FOR ANYONE TO SEE!!! Fortunately I only have to write 2 checks a month. My country water company is totally in the dark ages....I have to check my own meter and mail them all the figures, so I CAN'T do it online and it stinks. Anyway, I hope you get your $$ back!!