Weekend at Believe in Tomorrow House, But First....

This is supposed to be a blog post about our 4-day trip to the Believe in Tomorrow beach house in Ocean City. But unfortunately, it is a blog post about how my credit card number got lifted....again!

I don't do a lot of crazy Internet transactions. Wait, that didn't sound right. I don't do ANY crazy Internet transactions. I always pay in bullion for the crazy stuff. However, we do pay for almost all of our transactions with a credit card. Cash? What's that?

As we were leaving on Thursday, and I mean we had the car parked and the kids were getting ready to get in the car, the phone rings. My daughter answers it. Her face is blank. My wife asks, "Who is it?" "Bank of America." "Oh, hang-up." She hangs up. "What did they say?" "I don't know, something about our credit card." Crap. I go back out to the car and grab the laptop and come inside.

I fire up the laptop, go to my issuing bank's website, and review my transactions. Nothing suspicious. Chalk it up to overzealous security administration. I'm not bothered!

We get to the beach, 'do our thing' as the youngsters would say. Saturday we decide to go to the outlets. First stop - J. Crew. My first transaction goes through fine. Then I see something else I like, so I pick it up to purchase it. Credit card alert. The code requires the merchant to call the issuing bank. They type in some override codes, I pay and I'm on my way.

Next stop, U.S. Polo Association. Credit card alert. This merchant calls the bank. Transfer. Push 1 to speak English. Push 1 to continue speaking in English. Transfer. The merchant asks for my driver's license. Blah-blah-blah. It's about 15 minutes standing at the counter. If I had any sense I would have asked for my card and walked out, but that little voice in my head said that if I requested to do that the next phone call would have been the police. Finally the approve it and I'm on my way.

That evening we go to play miniature golf at Old Pro. Denied. What the cusser is going on? We pay in cash. When we get home I call Super American Conglomerated Bank of the United States. They say there's an alert for a suspicious transaction. $1. One freakin' dollar?!!! It's from Google. Google??? Apparently some notoriously nefarious corporation sends out test charges for $1 to random or stolen credit cards. If the charge hits, then they'll send massive charges your way. Fortunately for me, Super American Conglomerated Bank of the United States stopped my card before anything else could happen. Unfortunately for me, I'm on day #2 of my 4 day vacation. Cash anyone?

We got through the week on a Ben Franklin, a few Georges, and an Honest Abe. Not how I wanted it to go down. Your new cards will be delivered in 4-5 business days. 45 business days? Huh? No, 4 TO 5 business days. Oh, that's better.

By-crikey. Should we go back to cash? I hate having that all in my wallet. It's so much more convenient to have a piece of plastic.

Have you ever had your credit card number stolen?