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Had to cancel another credit card - again

ScottRNelson

ScottRNelson

Adventure and Dual Sport
Joined
Aug 3, 2002
Location
Meridian, ID
Moto(s)
Honda XR650L, KTM 790 Adv R
Somehow my wife and I can't seem to make it through a whole year without having to cancel our credit card and get another one. I started saving the "dead" ones on a tack board next to my computer and currently have seven of them tacked up there as a reminder. Seven!

In the past, the issue was usually my wife falling for something on facebook that is "too good to be true" and entering the number before thinking about it. We now have a rule that no credit card numbers may be entered into her phone to any web site accessed directly through a facebook link. I think just maybe we finally have that part worked out. She would do it, realize too late that something was wrong, come apologize to me about it, but it was already too late.

This morning I just happened to be checking the credit card balance to pay it off and I saw a bunch of pending transactions for "AMAZON PRIME PMTS". The first one was the test case for $1.12 with today's date. Usually the bank calls me about bogus looking charges, but this time I found it first.

Before I could call up the bank and get the card cancelled we had the following pending charges:
  • $400.50
  • $920.18
  • $528.94
  • $732.30
  • $956.09
When I first noticed it there were only the first three, but by the time I had the bank on the phone after calling the number on the back of the credit card and going through the hassle of getting a human on the line, there were two more. In any case, none of those charges had gone through and it all got cancelled, so maybe only Amazon loses money. Or not. I'm curious if Amazon has a shipping address for the bogus charges. I couldn't see a hint of any of that when I signed on to Amazon. In fact, it's been a long time since we charged anything at all with them.

In any case, that account now has a new password and I've turned on two-factor authentication. The bad news there is that it's through my wife's phone, not mine, so any Amazon purchases require her to be around (or at least her phone).

Am I the only one that has to regularly deal with stuff like this?
 
I have several cards and use them for specific purposes:
Chase Freedom card: cash back on all spending: used all bills and other recurring household expenses, never swiped or used online.
Citi Costco: 4% back on fuel spend; swiped at fueling stations only.
Citi AAdvantage: Airline miles on spend; swiped at restaurants and used online.
BofA Platinum: Used as a fallback/emergency only.

I have to have the two Citi cards reissued roughly every six months; I just had the online one reissued 3x in a row over three months (my wife and your wife might form a 'risky clickers' club. ;) ) The gas card gets skimmed a lot when I'm out on rides- apparently lots of card skimmers get stuck on pumps at gas stations. The online card gets compromised online, as you might expect. By having no recurring charges associated with those cards, replacing them is close to painless.
 
i've heard of people using pre-paid debit cards, gift cards etc for online purchases for this reason. it'll probably get you added to a money laundering watchlist but at least someone is looking out for you then?
 
This seems to happen to me annually.

It's just a Thing. It doesn't bother me any more. The banks handle it well. Before it used to be a real pain because it would crater any recurring charges that you have, and you'd have to go through all of them and reset them. But that's less of an issue any more.

Just get a new card, tell the bank which charges aren't mine, and move on.

The modern "tap" sensors are gas stations help, I know I've lost it a couple times at gas stations.

Most places today are tap, I keep handing my CC to servers and such, but the almost never take them any more. "Use the kiosk on the table."

I'm not going to jump through a bunch of hoops to cope with it (like one time CC #s and stuff like that).

The net headache isn't worth it. Burn the card, get a new one, move on.
 
Can't recall the last time there was a problem with any of our cards to be honest.

My wife monitors the balance once in a while to catch any hanky panky.
 
Sharxfan said:
Check with your bank but at one time a lot of credit cards had one time use numbers so you could put those in on webpages and it was only valid for one transaction so it someone skimmed it online then it wouldn't work for them again.
Click to expand...
I used to have a browser extension that linked to my CC and did this for me automatically, but now I just use the disposable CC and it's fine.
 
There was on online hack called magecart that they put hacked code on payment pages and it would send your CC# to a central server that was a long time ago but not sure if webistes have all cleaned it up. Not sure if there is a way to use a browser extension to find it though.
 
We keep getting offers to set up a "virtual" card number for our Capitol One card - so far I've resisted it since I can't figure out what that does, and why it is so much safer than not doing it.
 
Alan_Hepburn said:
We keep getting offers to set up a "virtual" card number for our Capitol One card - so far I've resisted it since I can't figure out what that does, and why it is so much safer than not doing it.
Click to expand...
you could use the virtual number probably to pay for sketchy sites and it keeps your main card number safer so you don't have to cancel the main card all the time and can just dispose of the virtual card and create a new one as needed.
 
byke said:
Setup email notifications for every charge over a dollar.
Click to expand...
I think having to weed through 45 email notifications, which is what I would have had from my most recent road trip to Oregon and the Redwoods, would be worse that what I recently had to go through.
 
Sharxfan said:
you could use the virtual number probably to pay for sketchy sites and it keeps your main card number safer so you don't have to cancel the main card all the time and can just dispose of the virtual card and create a new one as needed.
Click to expand...
That's what confusese me: the virtual card is connected to the real card, so I can use the virtual number to make a purchase online and the vendor takes that virtual number, which then pulls the money from the real card. What is the difference between me entering the virtual number and some lowlife entering the virtual number?
 
Alan_Hepburn said:
That's what confusese me: the virtual card is connected to the real card, so I can use the virtual number to make a purchase online and the vendor takes that virtual number, which then pulls the money from the real card. What is the difference between me entering the virtual number and some lowlife entering the virtual number?
Click to expand...
Nothing but if you have to cancel a virtual number its no biggie and you main card number is safe and you don't have to cancel it each time. This saves you from having to redo do recurring payments if you have them on the main card.
 
Alan_Hepburn said:
That's what confusese me: the virtual card is connected to the real card, so I can use the virtual number to make a purchase online and the vendor takes that virtual number, which then pulls the money from the real card. What is the difference between me entering the virtual number and some lowlife entering the virtual number?
Click to expand...
if the virtual card is compromised, they just generate a new one for you. Don't have to deal with all the nonsense involved with replacing an actual card.
 
ScottRNelson said:
I think having to weed through 45 email notifications, which is what I would have had from my most recent road trip to Oregon and the Redwoods, would be worse that what I recently had to go through.
Click to expand...
Either buy less than 45 things per day, or check your email more than once a month, whichever the issue is. You can do this I just know it!
 
mikev said:
if the virtual card is compromised, they just generate a new one for you. Don't have to deal with all the nonsense involved with replacing an actual card.
Click to expand...
What is this "nonsense" that you're referring to. I called the bank, asked them to cancel the card and send me a new one. That was it. About as painless as it could possibly be.
 
byke said:
Either buy less than 45 things per day, or check your email more than once a month, whichever the issue is. You can do this I just know it!
Click to expand...
The trip was one week, and the purchases involved three meals a day, one or two other random purchases, gasoline every day or two and a hotel every night. Unless I want to go mostly cash, that's what it adds up to.
 
Sharxfan said:
Check with your bank but at one time a lot of credit cards had one time use numbers so you could put those in on webpages and it was only valid for one transaction so it someone skimmed it online then it wouldn't work for them again.
Click to expand...

The virtual credit card is the right answer but almost no one uses it, including me.
 
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