Until today I could say no. This afternoon we received a call here at home. The bank was calling to find out if we had indeed purchased over $3000 of gear at various Apple Stores around Sydney during the day… Naturally the answer was No. The Banks Fraud division already knew that though and were going to cancel the AMEX card on that account. Great – No issue with that. Now here’s the problem. The Bank KNOWS that the transactions were fraudulent – in fact it was them that told us that the card must have been skimmed. However, WE have to wait for paperwork to come from the bank, then submit it to them and wait a further 7-10 days BEFORE they will reverse the charges on our account. Hang on… the Bank called US to tell us it was fraud, yet they can’t / won’t reverse the charges until WE do paperwork… and then only 7-10 days later? Seems wrong, but that is their procedure. Oh… and here’s the good bit… the $3000 of charges has placed this account (that has other cards on it that are not at risk), over it’s limit… therefore rendering all other cards unable to be used. The only solution is for ME to pay the $3000 to get it back UNDER it’s limit…. does not seem right does it?
Wait – it gets better… we went online to the bank to see if we can see the transaction history for the account. The Bank has removed our access to the account for the moment and will return it once investigations are complete. Yes – this is the same bank who has removed everyone’s statements due to a security flaw they were told about over 9 months ago…
For the record too and here’s the scary bit, this particular credit card has only existed for the last 3 months… and it’s only been used in our direct sight AND at reputable organisations, like the big supermarkets and such… so now we are left wondering just where this card was skimmed… and also how safe the replacement card will be.
Oh – for the record… the Bank I’m talking about is the ANZ bank. Not happy about it at all… but I’m stuck with them for now…
The same thing happend to me. I bought my first iPad in a suburb of Detroit and well after returning to Australia a purchase was made there for over $3,000. It was easy to prove that it wasn’t me and I was required to fill in the paperwork, but I did not have to pay the bill. I was told not to pay it and any interest that acrued would be refunded. I did need to get a new credit card number (total pain for automatic reoccuring payments) but did not pay for the item, international transaction fee to convert to Australian dollars or any interest charges.
I had a $1.00 transaction go through on my ANZ Business Visa a few weeks ago Wayne, they cancelled the card, failed to call me and when I called them they said, “No, your card is fine….”
Needless to say I was a bit pissed off.