Vent: My bank's fraud alert system went a little overboard on Tuesday

I tried to buy a $12 sandwich at a deli in Denver and my card got instantly frozen. The fraud text said 'suspicious activity' and made me call in. The agent asked if I was really trying to spend money at 'Subs and Such' and if I was 'in a high-risk location.' I mean, it's a sandwich shop. It took 20 minutes to get my card working again, and my lunch was cold. Has anyone else's bank gotten this jumpy over small, normal purchases?

3 comments

3 Comments

brooke716d ago

Honestly, that's so annoying. I wonder if it's less about the amount and more about the bank's own weird data. Maybe their system flagged it because that specific deli had a bunch of sketchy card charges last month or something. So now anyone who swipes there looks suspicious to their dumb computer. It's not fair you get a cold lunch because of some other person's fraud.

drew_coleman76d ago

Ugh, tell me about it. You're probably right, @brooke71. Their system is so dumb it probably thinks a turkey sandwich is a high-risk international purchase. I bet some guy bought a thousand dollars in pastrami last month and now the rest of us can't even get a soda without getting flagged. Makes you want to just use cash for everything.

tara7005d ago

Yeah the "weird data" thing you said makes total sense. I used to just get mad at the bank, but @drew_coleman7's pastrami story actually shows how one bad transaction can mess it up for everyone. Now I see it's their system trying to be safe but just being dumb about it.