Cancelling a Credit Card

Originally posted 2007-05-15 14:02:20

Last Sunday–Mother’s Day in the United States–my wife’s purse disappeared. Actually, someone put a crowbar through the passenger window of her van as it sat in our church parking lot and helped him or herself to the purse. The crook felt no sympathy toward a mother of five losing her new Vera Bradley purse with matching wallet and coin purse on Mother’s Day, but I guess crooks don’t spend much time thinking of others.

Vera Bradley aside, my concern focused on our credit card and debit card, both with the same institution. I realize that law limits our liability for fraudulent charges, but called immediately anyway. After calling the number on the back of my credit card, navigating the voice prompts, and punching in my credit card number, I sat on hold for a looooong time. Not a good sign. When someone finally answered, I explained what had happened, and said I needed to cancel and replace both cards. The customer service rep cheerily explained that I had to call a different number for my debit card, and that she needed to transfer me for the credit card. So, I was put back in the queue, listening to muzak, for another long time, before being asked AGAIN to punch in my credit number. Couldn’t they have transferred that information along with the call? When someone finally answered, he then made me tell him my credit card number, several times, slowly. Who wrote their software? Why did I have to punch in my credit card twice, then say it once? This can’t be a technique to prevent fraud–if I had the number the first time, I’ll have it for each subsequent request!

After painstakingly proving my identity, I finally got the credit card closed. Over 30 minutes had passed since my initial call. I suckered my wife into calling to cancel the debit card, and she spent 20 minutes or so on the phone. In the mean time, the crooks racked up several charges at gas stations, which we aren’t liable for, but at least some of them could have been stopped by a more efficient cancellation process.

On Monday, one of my wife’s friends bought her the Vera Bradley wallet-on-a-shoulder-strap that matches the purse that disappeared. What a nice friend!