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View Full Version : Three Cheers for AMEX



Jim Becker
08-13-2004, 9:26 AM
I have to hand it to the credit card companies these days...they are really a lot more sensitive to potential fraud than they used to be. Early this morning, I received a call from AMEX (my prefered payment instrument...) asking about some recent transactions that appeared to be fraudulent--things that were not even visible to me in either their online system or Quicken yet. (I was accessing those records as we spoke) They really were bad. Needless to say, I'm very thankful that the situation was nipped quickly and to their credit, they will have a replacement card to me tomorrow morning...which is a Saturday.

So I guess that Friday the 13th brings both bad and good news! :eek:

Ted Shrader
08-13-2004, 10:31 AM
Jim -

I have had the same experience with Discover (my payment instrument of choice) on more tham one occasion. I appreciate the ability to properly set the filter on purchase reviews to provide a saftey feedback. Once though, they were a little to zealous.

I had visited a Brooks Brothers store. When I got home there was a message on the machine that they had noticed some unusual purchases. Well, the truth is, they were unusual, for me anyway, but they were mine. I guess I should buy some nice clothes a little more often. :) :)

I guess big brother is always watching.

Ted

Jim Becker
08-13-2004, 10:38 AM
Ted, Brooks Brothers would trigger on me, too!!...especially since I discovered those nice long-tail "no-polo" polos with pockets at Duluth Trading. :D I only do suits when I'm in the UK where they still are a little more "formal"...I'm a business casual kind of guy. Matches the ponytail a little better, IMHO...

Ian Barley
08-13-2004, 2:02 PM
I worked in that industry (credit card processing) for a while and the fraud detection process is fascinating. Many organisations work on very complex sets of parameters which all get "back propogated" to a neural network which is constantly learning what is and isn't suspicious. Everything from location to volume and speed of transactions. The balance is always between fraud detection and declined transactions. I always loved the phrase for the volume of transactions that were declined where there was actually no problem - the insult rate. Glad to hear that in this case the process worked for you.

--

"I only do suits when I'm in the UK where they still are a little more "formal".."

Jim - Does that mean I have to go back to wearing a coat and tie to go to work?

Jim Becker
08-13-2004, 2:12 PM
Jim - Does that mean I have to go back to wearing a coat and tie to go to work?Not unless you rejoin your former employer...which I suggest to you, would be less than optimal with your wonderful work on the chairs! :D

JayStPeter
08-13-2004, 2:37 PM
Ted,

I agree w/Discover. I've been the victim of fraud twice with that card and had it stolen twice. Always awesome. Can't say the same of some flavors of Visa.

While Brooks Brothers should trigger fraud on me, it might not. You see, I've found some comfortable casual shoes at Nordstrom. So, maybe they would go ahead and be fine with it since I do shop yearly at a high end clothing store :cool: . If you see me in anything but jeans, there's something major going on.

Jay

Chris Padilla
08-13-2004, 2:49 PM
My wife had her Disc and AMEX card (+ $20) stolen out of her purse at work probably 3 years ago. They promptly went to Nordstroms in San Francisco and racked up $1200 in charges.

We called and both companies handled everything promptly and curteously but it took them a week to 10 days to resupply us with new cards so that part was quite frustrating. I'm glad to hear they have speeded up that process. The probably figured out they were losing money by delaying getting its clients new cards. Still, we never paid a dime but it is frustrating to see people get away with this...it all costs us at the end of the day.

BTW, I got a call when MiniMax posted the final charge for the FS-41 on my Disc. card! In fact, I got two calls...15 minutes apart...from two different people! :D

Jim Becker
08-13-2004, 2:57 PM
...but it took them a week to 10 days to resupply us with new cards so that part was quite frustrating. I'm glad to hear they have speeded up that process.
Normal delivery for a new card is about a week via snail mail. When I indicated I had to leave at o-dark-thirty on Monday morning for business travel, they immediately said I'd have the new card tomorrow morning before noon, no additional questions asked, other than to confirm the phone number for the delivery company to use if they got lost. That could be because I'm a "heavy" user for both personal and business charges, or just good customer service. Either way...I'll not complain...they are also a customer of mine.

Chris Padilla
08-13-2004, 3:19 PM
...they are also a customer of mine.
Ditto! :p ;) :D

JayStPeter
08-13-2004, 3:46 PM
BTW, I got a call when MiniMax posted the final charge for the FS-41 on my Disc. card! In fact, I got two calls...15 minutes apart...from two different people! :D

Over such a small charge? Oh my, they really are thorough. :rolleyes:

Jack Hogoboom
08-13-2004, 11:29 PM
It really is amazing what they can do. Remember though that under Federal law your maximum liability for unauthorized usage is $50. So they are basically covering their own butts. Also, never pay for any add-on fraud protection schemes. It isn't worth it when the law already caps your liability.

Jack

Aaron Koehl
08-16-2004, 9:39 AM
Thanks for the insight, Jack-

Matt Meiser
08-16-2004, 12:41 PM
We had a similar situation. The bank couldn't get in touch with us by phone however and reported the card as stolen and sent us a letter. Luckily we were in town and didn't NEED to use the card. Most of what they caught was actually mine (work trip to south Chicago/NW Indiana.) but right after that, there was a few thousand in fradulent activity. Seems someone copied the numbers off my card and made a duplicate.

Michael Ballent
08-16-2004, 7:23 PM
Sometimes they are too good... We were in Egypt and were going to buy some stuff there and my CC company declined the charge... for several things uhg... We even called them to let them know what countries we were going to be in (including Egypt) and they still put a hold on our card... long distance call to the US and letting them know that we already notified them about it and it was cleared up. But still bugged me ;) better than the alternative.

Another time we were traveling through Italy and my camera was stolen AMEX covered the theft 100% was pretty cool since we bought the camera and lense within 30 days :D