Wait, What?

I complained yesterday about a small charge to my debit card which I did not make. I am glad at this point that I'm going through the process of getting a new card. And it does have me thinking about how easy fraud can be even in this age of safety feature over safety feature.

What I'm leading to is, why aren't safety features always employed? Twice in the last month I've used that now cancelled debit card without being instructed to enter my PIN or zip code, two common manners of making sure the user is the owner of the card. Once was at a Sheetz gas station in Ohio. I was using said debit for gas, and after tapping the thing against a monitor (a standard option nowadays, but one I'll never really get accustomed to) was told to fill up without either safeguard having been requested. We're not talking about an old gas pump at an old gas station in the middle of nowhere. This was a brand new Sheetz (a largish Midwestern/Midatlantic brand) which should have had those features. My question is, why not?

It makes a fella skittish about technology and the safety of his money. In my particular case, I can't help but wonder if that may have been how my card information was, ah, acquired. I didn't think so at the time. But now, well, I may avoid Sheetz until I know things have changed. Or at least stay away from that one. That's too bad for them, because they're nice places on the whole with great services beyond gas: fresh food and such.

We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'll be much more protective of my plastic cash. 

Cancelled (Not What You Think)

As do many of you out there in the ether, I routinely check my debit card use for all the obvious precautionary reasons. And yesterday morning there was a purchase which I did not recognize. It was for the whopping amount of $1.77. Not all that much; next to nothing these days, really.

But still, principle is principle, and why should I be held liable for even a paltry sum which I did not authorize? Even if it were somehow an honest error, I shouldn't have to pay it, right? Going to my computer, I logged onto my account and doth didst protest.

After entering all the pertinent information a summary page came up, asking if everything about my complaint appeared correct. Seeing that it did, I clicked next. And then I received a message saying thank you, your card has been cancelled, you will receive a new one within seven days.

No! I didn't want that! I just wanted the stupid buck seventy seven refunded. Now I'm without my debit card for a week.

Maybe I should have expected that; it does make sense as a measure against fraud. Yet doggone it, now I'll have to actually go into the gas station to pay for my gas and all that nonsense. I'll have to physically enter a bank to make deposits and withdrawals rather than find a convenient ATM. Rats.

I suppose I'm better off this way, but, again, rats. I'd almost rather have ignored the small charge. I guess that would have been dangerous, though.