What an odd thing it was, with oddly synchronous timing!
We have a credit card that we don't use. Well, hardly ever. Somehow, it accrued a credit of $7 (rounded off, because we don't require the minutia of pennies for this narrative). Every month the cc company has been mailing to me a statement to this effect as the card sits unloved in the cupboard.
I don't keep this card in may wallet, but fully intended to settle this $7 for once and for all. That point came on Friday. I was going out to make a small transaction of $13 (as it turned out). I spotted the card in the cupboard at the last moment, grabbed it, and took it with me. Once the new transaction were to go thorough the books, I would then pay the difference that I would owe, and I would then be done with this card once and for all. Or at least, I would get the balance to 0 and, therefore, would no longer get a month mailing.
As chance would have it, it so happened that the normal monthly invoice was in my mailbox the next morning, Saturday. I opened it to find the standard $7 credit.
But what was this?! There were four more purchases totalling $120. On a credit card that we don't use!
They were all from Amazon. I double-checked my account, but I do not even have this card listed with Amazon. I only have one card listed there, and it ain't this one.
At one time, Shauna had a copy of this card in case she had to purchase something or other for us. That was back in the days of yore before we could all easily etransfer money as required. She has not needed to use this card in ages, and she reported to me that she had destroyed her physical copy of the card because her version was expired and no longer valid.
So, if we didn't use it, and she didn't use it . . . uh oh . . . better call the company.
Meanwhile, my estimable wife noticed that the purchases had been made around Father's Day in June, and the timing seemed to correspond, but Sue hadn't made those purchases. She had Shauna make them on her behalf. She often does it this way, so I don't get spoilers in my inbox or at the door about what a are meant to become gifts.
Some time ago, we reimbursed Shauna for the amount of what she had purchased for us, and that was that, or should have been.
What the sam hill was going on?
While I was on hold with the card company, I asked Shauna to check her Amazon account and orders, just to be sure. Sure enough, she has mistakenly used my card which was somehow still registered with her Amazon account despite her having cut up her physical copy.
Thank goodness, I was able to hang up the phone before having to explain this mixup to the company.
Look at the synchronicity of this. On Friday, I make a purchase using a card that I never use, just to get the balance cleared up. Then, on the very next day, I open an envelope showing me that the card that I never use had. in point of fact, been used four times in just the preceding month. Also odd was that, somehow, Shauna had used the expired card that she had destroyed to make these various purchases.
This would be something that I might do — use the wrong card and an apparently expired one too.
I turned to Sue, and later also said to Shauna, that "She is definitely her father's daughter."
As a final point as proof of the last statement, I have more than once made online payments to the wrong company. They were substantial, but I had been able to reclaim them in due course.
So, I guess that I am my daughter's father.
20 comments:
I am so glad you were able to sort out who used the card - thankfully not a fraudulent use of your card.
PS - I use whinged/whingeing all the time, I grew up with the phrase " stop whingering & get on with it".
Well, glad to find out that was straightened out and nobody had to call the dratted company! Whew!
It does sound like a familial thing. But there are a fair number of hijinx going on with credit cards these days. I was out shopping several months ago when TG called to ask if I had used my debit card that day. No, I said. Are you sure? he said. Yes, I said. Well so then I had to call the bank and jump through some hoops and convince them that I had not used my debit card that day or even for several days previous to that day, and that no, it had not left my possession and in fact never leaves my possession. The charges had not been made, only attempted, so that part was good, but I had to close my account and get a whole new debit card number which was a hassle. And not for nothing but WE got a strange charge for $120 recently ... TG interrogated me vigorously but to no avail because I KNEW I had not bought anything for $120 ... well it really WAS a bogus charge -- not someone activating a near-defunct account by mistake as happened in your household. We must be vigilant in these perilous times. Happy week, AC! xoxo
I can see Sue rolling her eyes at this definite DNA test!
Wow, that is scary. I am glad you got it sorted out. Good detective work. You have a brain, after all. Or Sue does.
Brilliant synchronicity! The ease with which I use cards is sure to be my downfall one day. Or maybe the downfall of the world!
Good to get it cleared up! Such a pain, isn't it?!
That's hilarious and I'm glad you figured it out. I have several times mistakenly sent items to the wrong address. Now I carefully double check that since I've sent things (in the past) to New York where my daughter used to live.
It feels like we constantly have to be on the lookout for scams or our own silly mistakes these days. Cash was not as troublesome.
I have had to play credit card charge detective more times than I like. In my case, it always starts with everyone denying using it and then when I start narrowing down to place of purchase and the date, one of them will suddenly remember that they did indeed use it to charge something. Their memory is not as long as the monthly cycle of the credit card bill.
What a revoltin' development, as someone . . was it Jimmy Durante way back in the day? . . . used to say. Glad you got it straightened out.
Oh, no, it was William Bendix in the radio comedy "The Life of Riley". Guess I should have Googled it BEFORE I attributed it to the wrong actor.
We have several credit cards and I have trouble keeping them straight in my old age. Thus far we are safe...who knows.
We all have our own weaknesses.
We have a similar arrangement with our daughter when it comes to ordering for us. It can lead to interesting situations for sure.
Credit cards have to be carefully monitored.
LOL. That is quite a startling coincidence, though.
I had a small banking mistake that got cleared up a few days ago.
Your not alone about paying the wrong spot. I still mail two of my utility bills and yes, got them mixed up, so no one got paid -- and the next bill was a big one. (Only one of the companies alerted me -- and that took awhile!)
Oh crumb yes. I have done that. Worst was a misplaced decimal that put an outrageous amount onto the account I use to pay it. I now triple check my typing.
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