Wednesday, January 07, 2004

While in Atlantic City I attempted to draw out money on my credit card. I specifically signed up for said card to use on my New Years trip. Sadly the card was denied everywhere. In a sense that is a good thing because I had no business drawing out several hundred dollars to gamble, and I wish my other card would have been denied as well when I tipped a certain busty waitress $250.00. The humiliation of having a card denied was minor compared to the humiliation of begging my father for my money. However, I did find it odd that my card was being denied so I called the bank today in hopes of ascertaining why. It seems that my account was flagged by Fraud Services when I used it a couple different bars. I spent several minutes verifying my name, social security #, address etcetera with the representative in order to reactivate my card. For the most part I was glad that the account was flagged, due to the aforementioned circumstance, and also because it was nice to know that they were looking out for my best interests. Of course my happiness did not last long as the representative ended the conversation by scolding me. I am slightly paraphrasing but here is the jest of what she said "In the future sir please call and inform us if you are leaving the area so that this situation does not occur again." I proceeded to hang up the phone and mutter a few choice words to myself.

There is a fine line between vigilance and mind your own fucking business. I will not now, nor will I ever, call my credit card companies to inform them of my itinerary. And in this case it wouldn't have mattered. I wasn't sure of my plans beyond D.C. so what was I supposed to do. Call them everyday with an update of where I am at. As fun as it sounds playing "Wheres Bobo" doesn't work for me.

Thanks but ultimately no thanks Fleet Visa. I will be paying off your card shortly, as in tonight, then promptly tearing it up. I am all for proactive customer service but do the draw the line at big brother type tactics to achieve that end.

Go to Hell


P.S. I have two new hamsters and need to come up with names. I was told that Hamster Beta and Hamster Tres wouldn't cut it so help a brother and float some names my way.