Fraud protection I'm fine with, with one bank.. but...

[bean]

Okay, I have 1 credit card, and 2 debit cards. The CC is with capital one (*puke*) and I use it maybe twice a year.

My main checking/savings is with USAA - they're primarily military, but checking and savings are open to civilians. They have amazing debit rewards programs, great investment rates, etc. The downside is they're in San Antonio. My last paycheck was deposited with them, and I transfer money from my other account to them regularly since they refund ATM fees.

My backup bank, Chase... I have checking only, along with a debit card. Not only do I get nailed for using a non chase ATM by the atm owner, Chase even nails me with fees on top of that. For the most part, I keep small amounts of money in Chase and use it to funnel money into USAA. Basically the Chase account is there to move money between accounts - since they inherited me from Washington Mutual, they can't (yet) charge me inactivity fees.

When I got the car insurance payout, it was easiest to drop it in Chase, along with my final paycheck, my jury duty checks, and basically anything I need deposited. Since I no longer have a job, I'm not really using the USAA account much, it has a few hundred bucks in it.

Tonight I tried to pay for something online with USAA. Strange, said the CVV was wrong. Okay, typos happen. I retype everything, double check, same error. Ohhhhhhkay. I try my Chase card. This time I get an error stating I need to call my bank. This is a merchant I've been using for several years.

I then try both cars to try and get a Carfax report on my new car (dealer offered it, but I forgot to pick it up). Both declined.

USAA used to have 24/7 service, no longer. Chase doesn't either, but they offer an option to report debit card issues, lost/stolen, etc. I manage to get a live person, apologize for contacting them like this, but they were the only human I could reach. They did tell me they're in the fraud center as well, once I asked which dept they were in.

We go over my account (only verifying the last 4 of my debit card), she asks me to verify my full address and full legal name. She can see the attempted charges, and in fact they're even showing in my account as pending, but has no idea why they've been declined. The only solution she can offer is that in my state, Chase updates systems between 1-2 am and debit cards may quit working during that time. Except I regularly use my Chase card to pay bar tabs at... you got it, 2 am, when the bars close. She suggested waiting a bit and trying the charges again.

I try one last time, now the merchants are giving both a CVV and address mismatch. On all 3 of my cards.

Yeah, fraud protection is a great thing, I'm all for it, but 99.9% of my recent automotive expenses have been on the Chase card, and I've been using the USAA card for groceries, beer, and dining out. I haven't used the Capital One card in over a year, but logging in to capital one shows a zero balance and a high limit, and also reflects the charges I tried to use it for tonight as pending.

The only thing I can think of that may have raised a huge red flag with Chase is I went in after the insurance check cleared and withdrew $3,500 in cash. The clerk was surprised, asked what I needed it for, I told him I was trying to pay cash for a car and invited him to look at my last deposit - a large deposit for nearly $5800 from my car insurance company. We discussed cars for a bit and I told him that while I was dead set on a Toyota 4Runner, if it fell through, I'd like to have the cash on me to pay cash for another vehicle and have enough left over for repairs. (the 4runner fell through)

I know it's fraud protection kicking in, but it sure as hell is frustrating when none of the banks have 24/7 call centers unless you select the "lost/stolen card" option, and those guys are pretty limited on info. And seriously, ALL THREE BANKS AT ONCE?!?!?

I don't have a huge bank balance, but it's still well over $1,000 available in checking @ Chase with zero holds, I had that set aside to pay rent and pay for the remainder of repairs on the new car.

edit: just logged into usaa.com - it's stating none of my account information is available now (it was available about 10 minutes ago though). chase.com shows full account information, including the multiple charges from the purchases I tried to make tonight.

[bean]

Got them taken care of today, so I thought.

My Chase card was declined at the junkyard when I was buying a new center console for the new car (one that was in one piece instead of about 15). Thankfully I had cash, Pick and Pull sells interior bits by the foot. I called Chase and they had me name off all of my purchases in the past few days, I named all of them and they said they all matched, apologized, and removed the fraud hold. I haven't used the Chase account in over 6 months until I got the insurance payout, and I've been using it like mad (mostly for car parts, and also for a laptop computer), so I can see why they thought some fraud was going on.

Still would have been nice if they'd called me before I was trying to eat dinner and the waitress told me my card was declined. My other 2 didn't have enough to cover it, so I had to spend 15 minutes on the phone with Chase trying to get it fixed.

Turns out what originally set it off is the online company I was trying to order from was having issues - they were charging then immediately refunding. Their site is currently offline. Chase allowed one more charge to go through then stopped everything. I do realize they're doing it for my own good, so I can't be too upset.

[Amina516]

The clerk was surprised, asked what I needed it for

Its honestly none of his business. But I guess you were ok with sharing that information.

Still would have been nice if they'd called me before I was trying to eat dinner and the waitress told me my card was declined. My other 2 didn't have enough to cover it, so I had to spend 15 minutes on the phone with Chase trying to get it fixed

Thats ridiculous....Ugh. Id have gotten pissed, but it sounds like you kept a cool head and Im sure that helped.

I wonder if the charging and them immediate refund is often used in some kind of scam.

[bean]

The charge/refund was an online purchase, actually a company Whiskey is familiar with (I was trying to purchase an upgrade for my account on the somethingawful.com forums). Since then the upgrade system has been taken offline, but I still have a lot of money tied up in the attempts, they should fall off in a few days.

I'm still trying to get my USAA account sorted out. At this point they're just waiting for the authorizations to fall off.

I think the clerk was just curious what I needed the money for and trying to make conversation. Plus I had been outside in the heat all day, so I was DRENCHED in sweat and kept having to wipe my forehead off, so I'm sure I appeared nervous. I just told him it'd be a lot easier to pay cash for a car since I was trying to buy one private party over the weekend, wouldn't be able to get a cashier's check over the weekend, and nobody in their right mind will take a check when selling a car private party. The check I wrote for cash was also giving the computer fits - I haven't written a check on this account more than once or twice this year, and didn't know where my primary check book was for it - so I just grabbed another pad of checks. The computer was bitching about it being way out of the order they expected. But they got it taken care of.

I still dislike Chase simply because of fees.... use an ATM they don't own? Not only do you pay the ATM owner fee, you pay a Chase fee too. My USAA account will cover ATM fees and I get monthly rebates, so I've always kept most of my money in USAA.

[KiaKat]

The Chase fees disappear if you use it regularly, though. I've had my account six years and only paid fees for about six months, after I left my previous job and had to reorganize the accounts (no more DD, I was no longer affiliated with one of their house accounts, etc). As long as I'm using the account for both debit/credit and cheque writing, I don't pay anything. I also don't pay any cheque fees, or ATM fees, even if it's a non-Chase ATM (except for whatever fee is listed on the ATM itself).

I also have the Disney card, which means I build points toward next year's honeymoon. ^.^

[bean]

I think it had to do with the $5800 check going in and then he immediately wanted to draw $3500 from it. Granted it was for legitimate purposes, but coupled with the fact that the check was out of sequence with what they had in his history gives the transaction a bit of a suspicious feel.

The clerk was making conversation as well as sniffing out possible fraud activity. Nothing against bean, just the clerk covering his butt as well as protecting his customer's finances.

Getting back to the whole declining cc issues you're having, bean, I hope everything worked out for you! It truly sucks when you're cut off from your money and not being able to get in contact with someone who can fix it!

Exactly, I know he was trying to get a little info and making sure I wasn't trying any fraud. He did ask me for a second form of ID, and said it could be anything from an insurance card to another CC or debit card - just something with my name, but suggested a CC or debit card would be best. I didn't have my medical insurance card with me, but I did have my USAA debit card and handed it to him. He swiped it, I'm assuming to make sure it was active since a $1 hold appeared on my USAA account for a couple of days then disappeared. If I were in his shoes, I would have been suspicious too - especially when the guy getting money is sweating profusely.

I was also drinking VERY heavy at the time, and was well into withdrawal, making me sweat, shake, and making me appear even more anxious - and I'm sure I smelled a little like alcohol. So the guy had every reason to be suspicious. We talked about cars for a bit while he was counting out the money to me.

For those concerned, I'm doing outpatient detox now, and I've asked my dr to keep the Librium dosages low enough to where I can still function in day to day activities. So I'm a bit jumpy, my short term memory is non-existent (detox from alcohol is done via benzos, like valium, librium, etc, which absolutely destroy your memory), but I'm relatively comfortable, I'm sleeping well, and generally I'm able to function normally, I just can't remember shit. That's a big reason why I left my job, the drinking was out of control and management was asking me about it.