!@$%&! Mexicans

All the way home I was mentally preparing a rant about the evils of my credit card company.  They put a hold on my card and wouldn't let me make any charges.  Normally this would be inconvenient, tonight with a minus 16 temp and a wind chill of minus 45 to minus 50, and my gas tank being on empty, it was almost a disaster.  They had called me earlier today and left a message about my needing to call them back.  When I did, the number I called just wanted me to input my credit card number.  I hung up. 

Needless to say cold, and nearly out of gas and not having my credit card work put me in a less than happy mood.  I made it home and looked up customer service and was preparing to vent my spleen on some barely literate women in India or Timbuktu or wherever.  No doubt she wouldn't get the full jest of my sarcasm but I imagined that I would feel better.

I made the call and was transferred to a real live American in Arizona of all places.  He was on top of things.  He started off by apologizing to me about the problem and let me know that there were a bunch, and I do mean a bunch of charges that they were refusing to pay.  He went through them line by line, item by item.  What tipped them off was I had dinner in Wyoming on Saturday with my wife and had charged it.  Then in less than 24 hours I was in Hamburg Germany physically charging a purchase there.  The next day I was making a charge in Utah.  Plus there were a bunch of internet charge attempts.  Given that there have been over 3,000 canceled flights due to the winter storm hitting the USA right now, they figured that I probably hadn't been in all those places that quickly.  They were right.

The one place I had been, and the only place that I have physically handed over my credit card to anyone in several months, was the Mexican restaurant that the wife and I had dinner at.  Although I've had an account with this company for around 20 years, I just received my new card a little while ago.  The fraudulent charges all had the new security code found on the backside of the card.  Guess where I'm not eating at again.