No, We Didn't Sign Up For Your Stinkin' Card!


Yesterday, our shiny new Bank of America Power Rewards VISA card showed up in the mail - a credit card we never applied for in the first place! We had been happy users of our old Schwab Bank VISA card for years, but they no longer wanted to be in the credit card business so they transferred us first to FIA card services (whoever they are) and now completely over to Bank of America, an institution I never held with the highest regards. (The same crooks charging folks $5/month for a debit card.) But since we did need a backup credit card I activated it yesterday with the toll-free 800 number on the sticker, and pocketed my shiny new card. I did find it humorous the card said "customer since 2005" when we really only had the card for an hour or so, but I did not realize at the time I would own that card for less than a full day. I had not even had time to sign up to manage the card on-line.

Today we received a call from the fraud department of Bank of America and someone there told us some crook tried to charge over $1,000 on our brand new card on NewEgg.com (one of my favorite places to shop -- but it wasn't me this time!). So they told us to destroy our cards and they would send us new ones. Wow, less than one day and someone already tried to fraudulently use our card. Is someone in the Richmond Heights Post Office trying to steal credit card numbers or something? At least it is good to know all the crooks aren't in the banks and in politics! We may end up just canceling the Bank of America credit card since the rewards program there is not even all that great. Why would anyone actually choose to use one of these monolithic national banks? We will continue to do most of our banking at our favorite local credit union, First Community. I did check to see if it was one of those new "Blink" enabled cards that may pose a security risk, but that seems to only be on Chase cards (Bank of America must be too far behind the times.)

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