I’m going to start off by saying I’m a complete idiot. If you’ve been following some of my tweets you may have heard that my credit card was recently compromised. Or so I thought. Let me explain.
I pretty much check my mint.com account daily. Yes, I realize that may be a bit anal, but…well…that’s just how I am, I guess. Any who, I was looking at my one of my credit cards and there was a really bizarre charge from The Bay in Burnaby on it. As I’ve mentioned several times before, I live in Vancouver, and I rarely venture outside the city unless I’m visiting my parents.
I took a good look at the charge and seriously had no idea where it came from. Plus, on the day the transaction took place, I remember being at work then going straight home, so there was no way it could have been me buying something at that store. In a panic, I phoned my credit card company and explained that I thought someone had stolen my credit card digits and went to town at The Bay.
At first the representative didn’t believe me, but then he said it looked like the card number was typed in as opposed to being swiped so I felt like my suspicions might be right. The first thing that came to my mind was “I knew it!”. I’ve had this happen once before a few years ago and I just knew it would happen again at some point. Finally, my abnormal account checking habits were paying off! After talking with the rep for about 10 minutes, he concluded that it probably was a fraudulent charge, and the card should be cancelled right away.
He then transferred me to another department and a new rep explained to me how the whole process would go down. Basically, they’d send me some paperwork for me to sign, then they’d file a grievance with The Bay saying it was a fraudulent charge.
If The Bay disputed it, then there would be some more paperwork, but eventually they would credit my account so I wouldn’t have to pay the charge. Everything was settled and I was glad everything was pretty much sorted. Then, almost comically, a light bulb went off in my head at about 4am the next night and I remembered what that charge was for.
Even though it was still dark out, I couldn’t sleep. So, I went into my living room and called my credit card company again. It turns out I had actually made a purchase at that store, but it was made online for my friends’ wedding gift registry, and I had just completely forgotten about it.
The charge went to The Bay in Burnaby because that’s the closest store to where they live. Thankfully it was easy to clear up with the rep, no grievance was filed yet, so now I just have to wait to receive my new credit card in the mail and everything will be back to normal.
So, what’s the lesson here? Don’t be a crazy anal person and check your accounts daily like me? Perhaps. Don’t jump to conclusions and assume someone is out to get you and your precious credit limit? Maybe. How about think before you speak, look before you leap, and calm the f*** down!
Has anyone else done something like this before?
