BECU FYI for after-hours pending transactions

[Gollum]

This is just an FYI (For Your Information) in case it might help someone else in a similar situation with BECU regarding pending transactions when BECU customer service is not available because it is "after-hours."

TL;DR (Too Long;Didn't Read) -> BECU Security / After-hours: 888-918-7313 might work.

I used my fairly new (one month or so) BECU credit card to try to buy something via Internet from a company (let's call it X) with which I had a different credit card already set up for purchases.  I entered the information for my new BECU card on X's website, and X then required me to verify my BECU card.  X made two small authorization "purchases" and then required me to look up those two amounts, then enter them on X's website.  This was where I ran into some difficulties.

BECU's website does not show pending transactions, BECU's app does not show pending transactions, it was after-hours for BECU customer service, BECU's phone menu system does not give information about pending transactions, and VISA Signature Concierge Service cannot look up pending transactions.  I did find a workaround: using the BECU phone menu system, I pretended I was responding to an offer for the card I already had; the phone menu system then connected my call to a live person, who was able to look up the pending transactions for me.

When I was eventually able to ask BECU customer service about this situation, I was given different information by different people.  The first BECU person said to call the 800 number on the back of my card.  That seems incorrect, because one 800 number is for BECU's main phone number, and the other 800 number is for VISA concierge service.  The second BECU person said to call BECU Security / After-hours.  I called the BECU Security / After-hours phone number a few minutes ago, and the person I talked to said he could not guarantee that I could find out that information (if this happens again) but it is worth a try because it is a toll-free number.  The BECU Security / After-hours phone number is 888-918-7313.

Edited (12:29pm 06-29-2018) to correct phone number.

[ToughFistFight]

I have seen pending transactions. I verified amounts with PenFed. They were pending amounts. I'm confused. Maybe that particular company doesn't do pending amounts? I dont really know how that works. Been a BECU member since the 90s.

[NRB525]

Thanks for sharing.
That is truly a painful sequence for the BECU rewards, which are 1.5%?

I have not encountered any merchants who need to do such pending transactions. I have seen fraud / testing transactions of small amounts. The only situation I recall where a bank will send ( and then recall ) small amounts is when setting up inter-bank transfers for checking accounts.

I have a BECU CC. I actually backtracked and stopped the PC process when they were going to move me to the 1.5% rewards, because the basic APR would increase. I use it for BT only. Am on a $0 BT Fee, 0% APR for some balances now.

[jl4]

Any company that does something like that to verify your credit card seems fishy. Credit card processing tech is advanced enough to make a decision on the spot the vast majority of the time. Whatever they do, it doesn’t seem worth it.

(Source: my day job)

I use the rewards visa, too. My pending transactions have shown up fine.