Credit Card Authorization Process; Who is to blame?

[wbarnhill]

Ok, so here's the deal. The past two days I've made two separate purchases, one was a TiVo system (my graduation gift to myself) and one was a gift for my girlfriend. After attempting to purchase the gift I was told that there was an Address Verification problem. Checking my bank account, I saw the charge was sitting there as a hold. Confused, I contacted the company directly. The owner told me he's seen it every now and then and said he could process it some other way. Anyhow, he managed to process it successfully (though I think the first one was just as successful as they both ended up as a hold on my account) and supposedly it's been shipped and is on its way.

That was yesterday. Today I tried to order the TiVo and got an address error message from them. Called my bank and explained what was going on, the girl was nice enough and cleared the hold from my account and said I needed to call TiVo and make sure they didn't try to push the order through anyway. Not a problem. She also said because there was a second address on the account that could be where the issue is. Okee dokee, tried the second address, the same problem. Call my bank once again and now am told there's no way no how that I can get a hold removed and the first hold was removed because it was a "duplicate charge". Nope, wrong answer. After some back and forth with his supervisor, I'm down a decent amount on my bank account and can't touch that money until Thursday when the hold expires. On top of that, no TiVo.

So I get to spend my graduation day calling TiVo and convincing someone to call my bank and straighten out my account issues, then try to figure out how I'm going to order anything online ever again if I continue to get this problem. So who is to blame? Did I happen to hit two merchants who use the same messed up company who screwed up, or should I be looking at another bank to do my business with? Any clues?

 

[KennyFlys]

The lesson to be learned... never, never, never... ever, use a fake Visa or MasterCard (debit card) to make a purchase; particularly online or by phone. There are simply no protections. You're better off with at least a secured credit card if you can't get a card with a low limit. Using a card with direct access to a cash account is a huge risk.

 

[Eamon]

The lesson to be learned... never, never, never... ever, use a fake Visa or MasterCard (debit card) to make a purchase; particularly online or by phone. There are simply no protections. You're better off with at least a secured credit card if you can't get a card with a low limit. Using a card with direct access to a cash account is a huge risk.

Exactly. Sometime a filling station (Auto or Airplane) will put a $50 hold on you card to start the pump.... Then you pump $5 & you still will be "missing" $45 that is stuck on hold for a week.

Also you do not have the same protection as far as disputing a charge, returning an item, etc with a check card as you do with a CC.

 

[wsuffa]

The lesson to be learned... never, never, never... ever, use a fake Visa or MasterCard (debit card) to make a purchase; particularly online or by phone. There are simply no protections. You're better off with at least a secured credit card if you can't get a card with a low limit. Using a card with direct access to a cash account is a huge risk.

Exactly. As much as the banks (and others) try to get you to use a debit card, it offers no protections. Far, far better to get a low-limit credit card if you're buying online.

 

[Skip Miller]

Exactly. As much as the banks (and others) try to get you to use a debit card, it offers no protections. Far, far better to get a low-limit credit card if you're buying online.

Cards issued by Citibank (www.citicards.com) have a virtual account number feature. Either through a downloaded applet on your computer, or through a web page, Citicards will assign you a one-time only credit card number that is mapped to your real card number. I have never heard of a problem using this system... except that the applet version of the number generator is very slow.

-Skip

ps: my only relationship to citicards is as a customer.

 

[Lawreston]

Exactly. Sometime a filling station (Auto or Airplane) will put a $50 hold on you card to start the pump.... Then you pump $5 & you still will be "missing" $45 that is stuck on hold for a week.

I think I read a dispatch which indicated that the referenced "hold" is not activated if one were to go inside the filling station for processing of the card, rather than doing it at the pump. However, I don't remember the author's name.

HR

 

[SkyHog]

Yeah, y'all are wrong, there are protections in place, as experienced by having two "fake credit card" numbers stolen, different banks. Both fell under the same safeties as a normal Visa card would, in that the money was disputed and promptly returned to my account.

It's not like using a checking account anymore. This is the future.

 

[SkyHog]

Exactly. Sometime a filling station (Auto or Airplane) will put a $50 hold on you card to start the pump.... Then you pump $5 & you still will be "missing" $45 that is stuck on hold for a week.

Same thing happens with a real credit card.

 

[Everskyward]

It's not like using a checking account anymore. This is the future.

Checking accounts have their glitches too. About a year ago I had someone send me a regular paper check. When I deposited it, the money was deducted from the sender's account but never made it into my account. Luckily I know the sender very well. But even working with both banks it took about a month to straighten the whole thing out. I never found out where the money had gone during that time, and it was a fairly substantial amount.

 

[mikea]

Same thing happens with a real credit card.

Yeah, but you're aren't on the hook for the reserved amount when your CC bill arrives, and they don't bounce your checks when the reserve is more than you the cash you have in your checking account.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Checking accounts have their glitches too. About a year ago I had someone send me a regular paper check. When I deposited it, the money was deducted from the sender's account but never made it into my account. Luckily I know the sender very well. But even working with both banks it took about a month to straighten the whole thing out. I never found out where the money had gone during that time, and it was a fairly substantial amount.

Earlier this year, I had a check for a modest amount debited for a much larger amount. I caught it when balancing the check book. Bank of America was quick at fixing it- a copy of the cancelled check got them investigating & it was fixed in a day.