Capital One...looking out for us or moronic??

[Mermaid02]

We spent 3 nights in Ottawa this weekend. I checked into The Westin on Thursday night with my capital one card.... I paid for dinner with our capital one card and then called my Mom and the kids with the card..... Friday morning, the card was denied when we went to pay for a bus tour of the city. It was later that day when we got the chance to call them..... they had contacted their fraud department because we were in Canada and that was unusual.... when they tried to get us at home they couldn't (DUH! We were in Ottawa trying to use our credit card) so they were denying all charges we tried to make on the card.

It seems funny now- but I was furious Friday. Guess from now on we'll have to clear all our trips with them!

 

[jrydberg]

I've had a credit card company wait to approve until the business called them and put me on the phone to verify that it was, in fact, me. I have no problem with that. But denying the card because it was unusual is ridiculous, IMO.

 

[hercamore]

Well, I live in MN and evidently, I spent $800 in CA this past saturday and $200 in Fl last Wed.

Disney Visa didn't call till saturday night to check on suspicious charges. Seems someone stole my acctinfo and had a good time.

herc.

 

[Nancy]

Cap 1 is very big on the fraud depatment stuff. (that's even their big advertising right now) If they notice anything at all unusual with the account activity they will investigate it. Now...you would think that if they couldn't contact you at home that just maybe you were in Canada using the card? That would be the logical thing! So I guess if you plan on using their cards for anything other then what you normally would you better call and clear it with them. LOL!

At least you know if someone steals your card and tries to use it in Canada they will call you.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

American Express used to do that to me all the time. It is very irritating to be stuck a couple thousand miles from home and then have them freeze your method of paying for dinner.

As for "protecting you" their fraud investigation is protecting themselves much more than the cardholder. The cardholder is only responsible for the first $50 in charges and almost every credit card company waives that.

 

[#1Mouse]

Had that happen with my Disney Visa this summer. We were at an Outlet Mall in another state. My two daughters were going into stores and picking out clothes and leaving then at the counter and I was following behind just paying the bill. At the 4th store, the charge was denied and the cashier said she had to call the credit card company. When I talked to them, they verified all my info and said that the reason was because there were numerous large charges in a very short period of time. Also, that the charges were not within my "spending pattern". She cleared the restriction and we were back to shopping!!

Gail

 

[caitycaity]

But denying the card because it was unusual is ridiculous, IMO.

let me tell a little story. the year before we were married, dh and i were staying at a hotel together in indiana for a friend's wedding. dh was one of the groomsmen and, on the first night we got there, went out with the other guys for a bachelor's party.

i did not have a car (dh took it) and we were in the middle of nowhere.

dh had checked us in and used his doscover card. i got a phone call around 10pm from the front desk asking me to come downstairs right away and they wouldn't tell me why. as it turned out, discover denied the charge because it was suspicious. the front desk at the hotel locked me out of our room because they thought we had stolen the card and wouldn't be able to pay for it. i tried to explain, but the front desk guy wouldn't talk to me because i was not dh and we weren't married. after about 20 minutes of trying to get dh on his cell phone, and then having to wait about an hour until dh got back to the hotel, i got to sit in the hotel lobby in my pajamas.

since then, we call our credit card companies whenever we go out of town.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

This happen to us in Disney last summer. We charged about $1300.00 for the room when we arrived. In the next few days we charged some meal and gifts. We then tried to charge the HDDR at the Poly concierge and was denied. I immediatly called them. They said they saw alot of activity outside our home state and put a hold on the account. After convincing them it was okay and I was on vacation they cleared it up. If I hAve a Disney Visa and claimed my dollars a month before, wouldn't make sense thaty I was on vacation? I know they are worried about fraud, so it didn't bother me that much. However , when we went last month I called them ahead and told them I would be in Florida!

 

[UncleKyle]

Originally posted by caitycaity


let me tell a little story. the year before we were married, dh and i were staying at a hotel together in indiana for a friend's wedding. dh was one of the groomsmen and, on the first night we got there, went out with the other guys for a bachelor's party.

i did not have a car (dh took it) and we were in the middle of nowhere.

dh had checked us in and used his doscover card. i got a phone call around 10pm from the front desk asking me to come downstairs right away and they wouldn't tell me why. as it turned out, discover denied the charge because it was suspicious. the front desk at the hotel locked me out of our room because they thought we had stolen the card and wouldn't be able to pay for it. i tried to explain, but the front desk guy wouldn't talk to me because i was not dh and we weren't married. after about 20 minutes of trying to get dh on his cell phone, and then having to wait about an hour until dh got back to the hotel, i got to sit in the hotel lobby in my pajamas.

since then, we call our credit card companies whenever we go out of town.

Ok that is just ridicilous. That is what our society has become with all of these fraud, scammers, and identity thefts. So sad.

 

[snoopy]

Like Toby's Friend, we've also had this happen using American Express. Its pretty humiliating having your card denied like that, especially knowing that you have always paid your card off in full and on time. The time it happened to us we were at WDW in that Coral Reef restaurant, and it was the only card we happened to have on us! DH had to run from the Coral Reef back to the room to get our other card so we could pay for our dinner!

 

[DIZNYFAN]

We had that happen at Chef Mickeys last Dec when we went to pay for dinner what a royal pain in the butt we had forgotten to take our TC's with us so we just put it on the card and had been out shoping earlier that day. We called them using a house phone and they cleared it up I guess they are just looking out for themselves and tell you they are doing it for your protection but it is a pain in the butt regardless.

 

[hydster]

We've had it happen to us several times with several cards including Amex and Cap 1 so now when we are going to go anywhere on vacation we make sure we call the card co's that we are going to use and tell them. It is a pain and it seems it shouldn't be something that we have to do but it's just easier than dealing with the card getting denied. I think the worst for us was in Cancun however and we needed to get home quicker for a family emergency and we tried to charge an extra charge from Delta to upgrade to another flight and Amex denied it and would NOT lift the hold. Thankfully we had another card and they approved it. Amex got a nasty letter from us about it as it totalled a couple of hundred dollars not like 1000's and their reply was basically tough.

Sadly this is becoming more common thanks to identity theft and such. Sorry you had to deal with it as well.

Heidi

 

[katerkat]

We had that happen on the way from Oklahoma to here! We have a gas credit card and apparently crossed too many states in too short of a time. (Duh, we were driving cross country!) Luckily we have a couple different cards so we had backup, but it was annoying!

 

[momof3disneyholics]

I have had Capital One for years and have never had them do that to me. I'm glad that they are trying to prevent fraud, but denying the card I think is a too much.

 

[decker96]

This happened to me a couple years ago with our GM Mastercard. I had gone to do some Christmas shopping. DH and I always buy one larger thing for our house that is our gift to each other every year. This particular year it was our DVD/stereo system. I had done some shopping then went and picked it up from Best Buy, then went to do some other shopping at the mall. The next store I went in the card was denied! I knew we were no where near our limit, so I had the cashier run the card through again, still denied. I ended up using my debit card for the rest of my shopping and called the credit card company when I got home. They said the same thing, suspicious activity because I was charging alot of stuff and then made a big electronic purchase so they froze the account.
Now, while I appreciate this on the one hand, they are looking out for us, on the other hand it was December. Many people spend more money in Dec. as they are Christmas shopping! Thankfully, I had enough money in our checking account to cover the rest of the shopping, but if I'd hadn't it would have been a huge hassle, more shopping, transferring money, etc. I agree, if the credit card co. is suspicious, have the customer call the company or something, but don't just deny the card.

 

[WDWAurora]

Along the same lines....When I was a freshman in college 4 years ago, I had a credit card on my parents account to use for groceries, gas, etc. since I'd had scholarships and stuff to pay for school, they helped with the rest. Well, I was 300 miles away from home. Our citibank card changed from Visa to MC. Well, dad called to activate the new MCs and specifically asked "Will this deactivate my daughter's card?" and they said no, that it was only for the other 2 (his and mom's). So I go get gas before going home for a holiday and get DENIED! It was so embarrassing. I knew that guy thought I was just another college kid in credit card debt. Luckily I had either checks or a debit card or something, so I was able to pay.

Fast forward to this past summer, and I still have one of their credit cards for emergencies (since I'm still away from home and it has a higher credit limit) but I also use it if I fill up my parents' cars while at home. Well, I was with my mom filling up her card and got denied. We had gotten new cards a while back, but I heard dad on the phone activating them, so I knew they were fine. By then I was mad (it had happened before, but their machine was on the fritz, so I let it go) so I called. Turns out ONLY his card got activated. Four years before they had told us there was no way to just activate one (after we called with the problem with mine) and now they just did one...Ugh!!

 

[ZachnElli]

I do think they are doing it to protect you (the consumer) as well as themselves. Dh and I were the victims of identity theft about 6 years ago. They got ahold of all our credit card numbers as well as our social security numbers. We still don't know how as nothing was stolen. Believe me it is a huge pain when they are charging up everything you have and trying to get limits raised! I don't think that they should deny them like they did, but it doesn't hurt to have them ask for the place of business to just call them and ask for other forms of ID from you.

 

[Carl]

I'm glad that didn't happen to me last summer when I was in Europe. I ran out of money and began charging all my meals to my credit card. I'd have been in trouble if they had denied my charges. I did have the credit card company call me once when I had just purchased a new cell phone and ask me if I had indeed made the purchase. But, they did not deny the charge. They just called me to see if I had made the charge. I said, "Thank you for checking, but yes I did make the charge."