Wamu, Wamu, Why mu

[felixfly2000]

I am just going to vent a little here. I am vacationing between Birmingham and Atlanta. So, today there was a sale on laptops at Walmart. This was not in the plans, but I felt the deal was to good to pass on. I only plan on using my BofA card this whole trip, but I did bring Chase and Wamu, (0 balance on each) as a just in case. I never did inform either of these CCC's I would be leaving my local area. (not to bright on my part) Long story short, I trying using my Wamu card , and purchase did not go through, and end up using my BofA card. After arriving back to my Dad's place; I went on line to check my account and had no access, but was giving a number to the fraud department. After verifying my card #, home address, home phone, last 4 of my SS #, then the questions started. Did I attempt to make a purchase at walmart? Did i make a $17 purchase at Walgreens and a $ 6 purchase at Frachise something or another,back in September? (I can't remember, but I do make small purchase very 3 mos to keep the card active) I would have thought this would be enough but no. Now on to public records. I drew the line at answering question about my other accounts not held with Wamu, and opted to close out this card instead. Of course I was bounced around between 3 department and end back up and Fraud. Can not close account until I prove it's me. So now I am awaiting a verification letter to be mailed out to my home address. Why mu, don't leave home without it.

[haulingthescoreup]

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felixfly2000 wrote:

Why mu, don't leave home without it.

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Ouch, sorry to hear! More like WaMu, don't leave home without making a call.

Hope you can find a way to keep it open without the full bend over and cough!

[Uniqua]

Perhaps the reason why your CC was declined is because you hardly make any purchases on it (according to you) and when you do, you make "small" purchases every three months just to keep the card active. Then, out of no where, you try to make a large purchase at Walmart for a laptop and it raised a red flag with WaMu. That sounds about logical to me since you were immediately routed to the fraud department. It is standard practice to ask you questions like this when fraud is a suspicion given your spending habits. Don't close the CC. If you plan on using it in the same manner as you have been you KNOW you need to contact them if/when you want to make a large purchase. WaMu handled this pretty well in my opinion.

FYI, I got the same flyer/e-mail about the in-store only specials at Walmart today. I had to go to several Walmarts to find the PS3 I wanted to get my son for X-mas (even a little far from my home area), but I did not have a problem using my WaMu CC for this purchase. I use my WaMu CC for every day purchases, large and small, so this was nothing out of the ordinary.

Hope this tid bit of info helps!

[Anonymous]

I think you will learn to appreciate the vigilance of your cc company if you get hit by real fraud. The first time something similar happened to me was also when buying a laptop, the second and third time when on a journey. The combination should be a killer flag.

And yes, when someone really used my card number in a fraudulent way, the cc company's prompt reaction made this a non-problem.

[Anonymous]

I called them when I thought I was going to use more than usual as I was moving.  They made a notation on my acct. so a flag wouldn't show up.

It is a smart thing to do especially in this day and age.

[ma_fico]

Nothing prevented WaMu from sending a "please call" message to the cashier so they could verify the op's identity.  Basically the cashier calls in, OP would answer the same questions s/he answered when s/he called when back home, and after showing id, sale gets approved.

It's happened to me before when I made out-of-character purchases - approved each time, and saved me a whole lot of anger and aggravation over declined purchases.

Good cc CS goes a very long way.  WaMu doesn't get it.