How Embarrassing

How embarassing. I took the team out for lunch on Saturday, as a reward for having to pull a rare Saturday morning installation. The bill came, and I handed the waitress my Visa card.

She came back a few minutes later and whispered, "Sir, your card has been declined." Declined? Moi? I keep X thousand dollars as a buffer on my debit card when I'm on the road! How can I be declined? Figuring it was a processing system glitch, I paid in cash. I then hit an ATM to replenish my wallet and check my balance. X thousand dollars. Whew, that's a relief!

I then went to Barnes and Noble bookstore to pick up a copy of Charles Stross' new book (The Merchants' War.....recommended!), only to find my debit card once again mysteriously declined. I tried calling the "customer service" number on the back, but was informed by the robot-voice attendant that only stolen cards could be cancelled from this number. Some service!

So this morning I called the issuing bank, and after three transfers found the root of my problem: "Well, we've had a lot of fraud in New York and California, so we've put a block on charges originating there."

Great.
Just great.

I'm up here in New York for a solid month with a non-functional debit card....it still functions as an ATM card but a lot of places (like hotels) look at you like you're from Mars if you attempt to pay in cash.

Oh, and did my bank publicize this block on charges? "Internally within our branches, yes."

Very helpful.