I wanted to go to bed early tonight. I was already very tired and i'm on my rag, having unpleasant cramps. I had flopped down on the bed, hoping to relax when my phone started vibrating with a text message from my bank, saying that my card had been declined.
The only instances where I can remember my debit card being declined was when I bought some things outside of the US. Some banks will flag charges coming from foreign countries as suspicious activity. However, I had not recently made any international purchases, and could not think of any reason why my card should be declined. My card was active, not expired. I hadn't charged a large sum. I knew something was very wrong.
So tired as I am, I still get online for something this imprtant to check my banking my statement, looking to see what the declined transaction was. Low and behold, I read a long list of purchases with charges I did not make! 621 dollars from Texas over here, another 135 dollars from Pennsylvania over there. Somebody has stolen my credit information, and went on a shopping spree, and run through my account.
I changed the edttings in my banking app, and had the credit card turned off so that no more money could be stolen from me. I just spent the last two hours looking over all my checking and savings account information with horror, and making notes of every charge I don't recognize to submit to the bank in a claim. Then I called the 800 number to get service after business hours, sat on hold, listening to automated messages, waiting for a human to respond. I had to type in codes and answer different security questions, but I disputed the transactions, filed my claim with the bank to get my money back. The team has started an investigation, and they cancelled my credit card for me. A new one with a different number has been issued, but it may take up to 10 business days to receive it in the mail, which may make things difficult if it really takes that long.
I have bills that will be due long before then. Some essentials like medical expenses, household utilities i.e my water bill, electricity, phone, internet I can just pay with cash locally if I must, same with food but other reoccuring charges like streaming, music and audiobook services, my pet food auto deliveries, monthly gifts I make to certain charities I need to have my card for. I am also worried about legitimate purchases I made in the last fews days that still have a pending status. If they haven't made the withdrawal yet, and charge after this point, then the transaction will fail because they'll be billing a card that has been cancelled. l also don't look forward to the monotonous task of having to update my credit information to new numbers on websites I use regularly that had that info saved like eBay.
What a mess. I don't know how my credit card number was stolen. I didn't lose the card, but whatever, I want this nightmare to be over.
