Posted May 02, 2010
Lobsang1979
Placeholder
Registered: Aug 2009
From United Kingdom
Navagon
Easily Persuaded
Registered: Dec 2008
From United Kingdom
cogadh
Banned? Never.
Registered: Oct 2008
From United States
Posted May 02, 2010
Chase has been annoying me quite a bit recently. They won't stop pestering me to allow them to charge overdraft fees again.
Speaking of Chase, I just tried using my Chase card to buy a new tent for a family camping trip we are planning this summer. I was buying the tent from K-Mart's website, a well-established and reputable retailer based within the US. I entered all of my address, phone number, e-mail and credit card information exactly correctly (and exactly as it appears in Chase's records), but did Chase allow the transaction? No. They claim they blocked the transaction as part of their normal "fraud protection". How the hell are they protecting me from fraud when all they are actually doing is preventing me from using the card legitimately? I could understand it if part of the information I entered was funny, like an odd address or different phone number, but it wasn't. There was absolutely nothing about the transaction that should have been flagged as suspicious, but they did it anyway. I'm reminded in many ways of the frequent discussions we have about how excessive DRM prevents the legitimate use of games; Chase's "fraud protection" is the credit card equivalent of Ubisoft's "DRM that is not DRM".
Gundato
The Peepe
Registered: Sep 2008
From United States
Posted May 02, 2010
Chase has been annoying me quite a bit recently. They won't stop pestering me to allow them to charge overdraft fees again.
It depends. I don't buy much camping equipment, but if the tent was noticeably more expensive than what you usually buy, it could be suspicious.
I usually only use my card for buying soda from machines and gas (and, of course, online purchases :p). When I paid for a ticket to a conference (got reimbursed later :p), they actually called me the following day because that was VERY different from what I usually spend.
Now, that then opens the can of worms that our banks/credit card companies are analyzing our purchase patterns, but that is a different argument.
cogadh
Banned? Never.
Registered: Oct 2008
From United States
Posted May 02, 2010
I usually only use my card for buying soda from machines and gas (and, of course, online purchases :p). When I paid for a ticket to a conference (got reimbursed later :p), they actually called me the following day because that was VERY different from what I usually spend.
Now, that then opens the can of worms that our banks/credit card companies are analyzing our purchase patterns, but that is a different argument.
See, I would have had absolutely no problem with a call after the fact, verifying that I actually made the purchase, but they didn't do that, they just outright blocked the transaction. This card in particular is my "emergency card" that is only used when I don't have the cash to outright buy something. For example, I have used it to pay for the labor on replacing the engine on my car ($500+), overdue utility bills ($200+), plane tickets ($300+), rental cars ($200+)... basically, it has almost never been used for small transactions and most of those transactions have been online. The smallest transaction it has ever had was probably a week or two ago when I used it to buy about $50 worth of stuff at Home Depot (I only used it because I forgot my debit card). If Chase was actually paying attention to my buying habits, they should have noticed this particular transaction was right in line with my past usage habits and allowed it, but they would rather be dicks and hassle me on a Sunday with pointless "fraud protection".