fosstodon.org is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Fosstodon is an invite only Mastodon instance that is open to those who are interested in technology; particularly free & open source software. If you wish to join, contact us for an invite.

Administered by:

Server stats:

10K
active users

#creditcards

2 posts2 participants0 posts today

#TSA Says Its #CreditCards for Bomb-Sniffing #Dogs Are Cut Off

The Transport Security Administration has a freeze on credit card purchases for its bomb-sniffing dogs, TSA confirmed to 404 Media on Friday. The statement follows the leak of an alleged internal email which said TSA was cutting off requests for dog food and vet visits.
#doge #security

404media.co/tsa-k9-bomb-sniffi

404 Media · TSA Says Its Credit Cards for Bomb-Sniffing Dogs Are Cut OffThe statement follows an alleged internal email which said requests for dog food and vet visits had been put on hold.

Aeon Financial Service said Thursday that the total amount of damage from illicit transactions that took advantage of an offline payment function of its Aeon Card credit card reached ¥9.9 billion. japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03/ #japan #crimelegal #creditcards #fraud #aeon

The Japan Times · Damage from Aeon card fraud in Japan reaches ¥9.9 billionBy The Japan Times
Continued thread

Back Up Everything. Even if Elon Musk Isn’t Looking at It.

Readers worried after Mr. Musk and his team were given access to federal payment systems. Here’s how to back up all your data and documents.
#GiftLink
nytimes.com/2025/02/14/busines

"Back up everything important, everywhere you can. Do this at least once a year or so. It’s just good hygiene."

My wife and I have two cards for an account with a major credit card. Traveling recently, she'd made a purchase on that card that triggered texts and emails to me worrying about fraud. This really bugs me.

Don't ask me why they're asking ME, not her. They CAN tell the cards apart. They should have asked her directly. It'd have been even faster. Delay was due to asking the wrong person.

"Charge OK? Yep. OK, done." That's all it should have been.

I verified things with my wife and texted back to the card's SMS query that it was OK.

But even after I inefficiently confirmed all was well, upon going to the web site, I was again confronted with the Fraud Department wanting to confirm purchases that I had already, through their clumsy interface, dismissed as non-issues.

Also at the site, I saw that they were playing a back-and-forth thing where the vendor was repeatedly retrying apparent new transactions to get an affirmative response. Every vendor in the universe likely knows there's no other way to get past this than to keep trying.

Given how bad their internal bookkeeping is, that they don't know I've dismissed this alert, I kept wondering what the chances are that sometimes people just get double-billed. You'd like to think there was a consistent state, a database, a single source of authority with data integrity and a unique view, but then again, they're not showing evidence they're good at that.

And now today I got mail from their fraud department asking me about my experience and whether, based on that, I'd recommend the card to a friend.

It WASN'T an incident of fraud. It was confirmed normalcy. It should have been finished now. Having already wasted my time once, they want to waste it more?

And let's leave aside my annoyance at the fact that every business in the universe has converged on this practice which (a) assumes I make recommendations based on a single experience, and/or (b) seems to be trying to single out an agent for blame, rather than considering process.

I seriously doubt that feedback from these surveys ever reaches the people designing the offending processes because modern customer service seems to have as its bedrock principle that no one inside the company should ever learn what the customer experience is. It feels like the purpose of customer service is as armor to make sure that the business can really see, much less absorb, the vast amount of useful information that customers would willingly provide about just how bad their product is. I think this because the worst parts never change, no matter how many of these surveys I fill out.

Here's what I wrote today:

«Declining a valid charge is not the answer to fraud. You may feel hampered by existing protocols, but the credit card companies all have this problem and all profess helplessness. They/you own this problem.

The problem is that every time you decline a purchase, the person we're buying from can't tell the difference between a stolen card, someone who doesn't manage money right, and you just being nervous. Create a way to send an error code that distinguishes these. A temporary error that says "I'm querying the customer, please retry this transaction." or even a way to just ask a question before responding. It's completely preposterous that the correct solution to this problem is to leave egg on my face because you can't have rational network protocols that fairly represent the actual information that needs to be represented.

You're using outdated ways of doing things because you're too lazy to make a new standard, and you figure it's just fine if you sully the reputation of every customer every time they make a nervous-making transaction, that they'll be fine about it, that they won't mind the uncomfortable conversations, that they love to have email, text, etc. in a zillion different places for a single transaction, information that confusingly lingers after-the-fact an that is just clutter.

So you're asking me now whether I think that was a kind of fun experience that would make me recommend your card to someone else? Do you hear yourself? Did this question really need to be asked?

What you did does not instill confidence. It just makes a mess of a routine situation that should have a routine interaction, and there is nothing about this interaction that has the look of routine, other than that customers are used to getting dumped on big Big Credit and having to take whatever you dish out.»

After more multiple choice questions, they asked if I had any other comments to add. I did add some reminders about alert fatigue and how real problems are likely to slip through the cracks when they're doing these other things.

Is it any wonder that not all of us are reassured by billionaires taking over the US and saying "don't worry, we're good at this", "deregulate us", "run the US like a business"?

This is why you always pay with a credit card

Yesterday morning around 10am, I got a notification of a charge on my credit card. I didn’t recognize it – it was about $10 at walmart.com. We generally do not patronize union-busting establishments (don’t ask me about my Amazon Prime account), so this was unusual. I called Capital One and they cancelled the card. This was frustrating, though necessary, since I know the number by heart and I’ve become somewhat attached to it.

By 1130, I had a notification on my phone that my card number on Google Pay had been updated so I could continue to use Google Pay even though my physical card was cancelled.

Noon today, my new card arrived via FedEx.

It’s really amazing that in barely more than 24 hours, the ONLY issue I have is having to memorize a new card number. Capital One even updated the number at many of my existing recurring payments, and provided a list of those they were not able to change themselves. I’m going to wait until I get an email saying they couldn’t charge my card because I’m lazy, but I appreciate the thought.

So, just one more reason to get a Capital One Venture X card. It’s about $400 a year but that comes with a $300 travel credit if you book through their service. It covered my Global Entry fee, and there are a ton of other benefits. It’s the best credit card I’ve ever used.

Capital OneVenture X Rewards | Capital OneEarn miles on hotels and rental cars as well as miles on flights booked with Capital One Travel, plus miles on all other purchases. Apply today.

I got one of those unsolicited credit card offers in the mail. There is an opt-out phone number that supposedly stops these offers for 5 years from all 3 credit reporting companies. The recording gives some generic company name. #credit #creditcards #experian

But it wants me to provide my social security number.
I feel uncomfortable providing my #SSN to an automated line

Has anyone used this opt-out method? Is this legitimate? #IDtheft #junkmail #ConsumerProtection

Continued thread

Interest is calculated based on current balance which declines as you pay off, but the fee is fixed. You can't directly compare!

What is the equivalent interest rate to the max 20.64% fee?

I used 2 diff online loan calculators to corroborate answer. The fee is about equal to a 35% APR! I'm hoping most people have credit card interest rates less than that.

So, caveat emptor! "No interest" doesn't necessarily mean lower cost.