That's a couple hours I'll never get back.

I just spent two hours dealing with a hacked Visa card. I have nine monthly payments of one kind or another that are automatically charged to that card. That was nine phone trees to navigate to change to a different card.

Plus, the card I wanted to change to was a Target Visa card. But if one doesn't use her Target Visa card on a regular basis, which I do not, The Powers That Be automatically drop the credit limit to $500. This is not enough -- I use my credit card for everything. (I found out about this $500 limit when we were on vacation last summer and I thought I had lost my wallet; I switched to the Target card and had it declined after about 3 purchases. Grrr.)

So I called Target customer service to have the credit line upped. Apparently their customer service reps are in some other country (not India, judging by the accents) and do not have the authority nor any way to adjust credit limits. That can only be done by Real Americans Who Work For Target In The USofA. And it is not done by customer request, only when the card reaches a certain level of activity. Then the RAWWFTITUSofA look at the account, decide what an appropriate line of credit it, change it, and send me a letter. By snail mail.

I told the rep very politely that that was not nearly fast enough to be acceptable. I know by last summer's experience that I would be resorting to still another card, possibly within days. She apologized but was adamant.

So I told her politely that Target cardservices had just lost a lot of business.

And switched everything to a delightful new Discover card I got a few weeks ago.

Comments

[Cookie]

Good for you!

Aren't the Target Visa people dreadful?! By far, the worst card company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with.

[Lisa]

Is that one of those cash back cards?

I have avoided getting a target card and will continue to do so.

All this technology... kinda sucks sometimes.

[Mary Jo]

I feel probably only a small amount of your pain after dealing with so many computer phone systems to switch all those auto pays. When my husband lost our card, I had a hard time remembering which bills were on auto pay. I now auto pay from my checking account. It sounds like a nice evening for a glass of wine or two.

[Soxanne]

Thanks for the tip - I'll never go with a Target card now.

Woof, woof

[Mary]

We have used Discover for everything possible for 24 years and they are *great* - no annual fee, 1% cash back, human beings answer the phone and they are excellent at fraud detection - recently got a call about a suspicious $1 transaction which was not us. (My hint -- call them and warn them before you on vacation so they know to expect charges from unusual-to-you places.)

[Lorette]

Customer service...gah. I spent most of yesterday trying to fix a newspaper subscription with iTunes that I wanted to switch from my phone to my iPad. You'd think that since I wanted to give them MORE MONEY, they'd be more helpful. Not. The rep that I finally got assigned to keeps sending me the same email "support", just arranged in a different way. Yes ma'am, I've already tried that.
I second the "call before you travel" thing, especially if it's an international trip.

[bullwinkle]

argh. I've had two cards hacked in just a few weeks. I feel your pain.