Last week, someone from the bank called. My husband talked to the lady and asked what the call was in regards to, but she had to talk to me.
Well, that made it weirder. You see, we have a joint account. But I also have a business account that’s just me, and two accounts for my RWA chapter, of which I’m the treasurer.
Let me ask you, when you get an “important” message from your bank telling you to call them as soon as possible, what do you think? Nothing good, right?
Yeah, me too. So it was with some trepidation that I called the woman the next day.
And… they wanted to tell me about their new combo debit/credit card.
I told the woman “Put me on your do not call list and don’t ever call me again for something like that!” I then informed her that if I got another sales call (or similar), I’d take my business elsewhere – all of it.
Was that harsh? Believe me, I was using restraint (because I knew she was just doing her job). Thing is, the last time I got an “important” message from the bank was about six years ago. They were calling to tell me that one of my accounts was overdrawn by several thousand dollars.
What???
After an initial (and I’m proud to say, internal) panic, I realized that it wasn’t my personal account, but the RWA chapter’s. And regardless of which account it was, I knew I hadn’t written that much in checks. “There must be some fraudulent activity on the account,” I told the woman.
Indeed there was. Some shady “company” in Belgium had charged each of the chapter’s three debit cards, overdrawing the account with the third withdrawal.
It took awhile, but the bank took care of it. They opened a new account and replaced the amount we’d had stolen so we could continue to pay our bills. I continued to get calls from their phone center drones reminding me that my account was still overdrawn, which prompted me to call the head office each time and remind them that I was waiting for them to “investigate” the fraud charges, but it all ended up working out. I’m thankful that was all the hackers got, and that it was resolved in a few weeks.
Oh, and I cancelled the debit cards immediately, both the chapter’s and my personal one. They were nice to have, but the chapter doesn’t need them. We just write checks, and if we absolutely have to have a card, one of the officers uses a personal credit card, and I reimburse quickly.
What about you? I’d love to hear from you! Have you ever been the victim of identity theft? What do you think about the bank calling to offer you services? Do you think I was a little harsh to the woman? Or would you have already broken up with your bank?
