Credit Cards

[creditnocash]

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creditnocash wrote:

hmm just put a 600 dollar restaurant bill on my cc. in ct (literally 3 minutes over the border) 

ill let you know how this plays out. 

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well jee cant login to my credit account for citizens bank. 

and when i go to cc from regualr banking the site freezes up. 

cc site says they cannot find my account. 

and to call the number listed. 

awesome. oh well. 

thats what happens when you put a 600 dollar bill and 600 dollar iphone 5 all in one month. 

[calogan]

BofA always hits me with the most rediculous fraud alerts.

I went to Russia for two weeks, nothing.

Got back and was back for a week, nothing.

Went to Starbucks (which I've always done often) after being back for a week and boom FRAUD ALERT.

Never any sort of fraud alert with Amex or Chase.

[TheConductor]

I think a lot of the false positives in their system come from merchants whose systems maybe aren't doing authorizations "the right way".  Over the years I've had about two dozen of these fraud alerts from BoA, and that's been enough for me to figure out a few patterns.  

For example, the gas station right by my work which looks like it hasn't upgraded its pumps since 2000 but people use it anyway because it's 4 congested miles to the next nearest gas station....I've had 3 separate alerts come right after paying at the pump there.

I've also noticed that their algorithm apparently has some geographical biases.  e.g. Once I notified them I would be traveling in Scandinavia and the Baltic states, spent a few months in Sweden with no problems, went to Finland with no problem, but as soon as I set foot in Latvia, boom! Fraud lock!

Anyway, it's all perfectly normal and it does usually seem to be small purchases that trigger it. I've gotten used to it and kind of regard it as a nice reminder that even if they are a huge corporate megabank, at least they're watching my six a bit.

I will say that in the past few years, the efficiency and courtesy of the people on the fraud review line has really improved. In the past I used to be annoyed by the fraud locks because it would likely mean 15m of waiting to speak with a terse and suspicious-sounding rep.  Now, it's typically two minutes and I'm done, and the rep is usually pleasant and cheerful.