Tag: Credit cards

A New Credit Card… Again

A New Card Is On The Way GmailExcuse us while Helaine and I pull all our hair out by the roots one strand at a time!

Our Southwest Airlines credit card is being replaced, again. The new card gets a new number. EVERYONE we do business with on a regular basis must be told.

Maybe you remember the last time this happened? We were driving from Connecticut to California. We were in Lincoln, Nebraska when we got the call.

I’ve lost count how many times this has happened, but at least five. We expect Chase not to extend the expiration date, so this will have to be done again in about a year. Make it at least six times.

What we’ve learned through all this is EVERY website puts credit card number changes in a different place. Each requires different hoops be jumped through and that you understand their particular style of business English. Some changes will take seconds, others will follow long minutes of head scratching.

Part of the reason this stings so much is because each-and-every time this has happened it’s been because of how Chase (and other American banks) issue cards.

It’s my understanding the “Target Caper” couldn’t have happened in Europe or Asia. There, credit card issuers have spent a little money to improve security. Here in the states, their security ends up being part of my job!

Not happy.

The Missing Credit Card

We’ve already changed our credit card number once this year due to suspicious activity. It’s a royal pain even though Helaine now has a list of those who automatically charges our account.

My journey to-and-from FoxCT has moved to the reliable pattern stage. I know where stuff is! When the gas gauge light came on while driving home I pulled off I91 and onto Silas Dean Highway. There’s Bluetooth in the Subaru Forester I’m driving, so my friend Harvey heard, “S**t,” as I opened my wallet and noticed what was missing, my credit card!

Helaine does most of the spending in our family. I pull out the card once or twice a week. As best I could remember I’d pulled the card out, but hadn’t used it, last Thursday at Subway.

I got home, wrote the note you see attached to this blog post, and started to think about the loss of a credit card.

We’ve already changed our credit card number once this year due to suspicious activity. It’s a royal pain even though Helaine now has a list of those who automatically charges our account.

When I briefly woke up earlier this morning I told Helaine. She reminded me it was actually Saturday when I last used the card across from the movie theater in New Haven.

A few minutes later she was on the line to the Atlas Diner.

“I wasn’t here then, but I think someone said someone had left something.”

Then the voice on the other end asked Helaine what kind of card and whose name was on it.

My Southwest Airlines Visa is back home now no worse for wear. It was cold and lonely and forced to spend the night in a dark cash register. Pain in the butt avoided!

“Maybe you should play the lottery today,” Helaine added.

I was pretty lucky.