Big Brother Good or Bad

No I'm not referring to the reality show Big Brother but the real reality of Big Brother.

I went to the grocery store yesterday and paid $59, then I went home and paid my cable bill, my phone bill and then I paid for 1 month of EverQuest to keep my account alive.  SOE had 2 transactions of $1 each basically to verify my account but then those 2 charges disappeared.  But as soon as I paid for that I got an email of suspicious activity on my checking account.

I call the number in the email and go through the process of pushing buttons to verify that yes I did make those charges and it was all fine and dandy, or was it?  I tried to buy something from Nashbar for my bike and it kept declining my debit card.  I just figured that they have a debit card limit and I've probably passed that limit so I waited until today.

So today comes and I come home from my bike ride and go to Nashbar's website again to buy my bag for the rear bike rack and a new skull cap so in the middle of my ride I can switch to a dry cap to make me more comfortable.  It declines me again so I just ended up using PayPal to generate a temporary credit card number then I called the bank.

After finally getting to an associate I told him what was happening and explained I was just paying bills, he puts me through to one of the fraud analysts who just wants to verify every transaction.

The woman who I spoke to was very nice, she had a nice voice and she was very helpful.  I told her what happened and that yes I did make all of those transactions.  She asked me about each item.  SOE.  She asked what that was.  I told her it's Sony Online Entertainment.  She said she has seen SOE before but she never knew what it was.  Then we talked about the 2 $1 transactions and she said that they do that to verify that it is my debit card then they erase them.

Then we get to Brighthouse.  She had no clue what that was and of course if you have never heard of it then yeah you aren't going to know but it's my cable company.  Then I said to her you will see ATT DES, that is the phone company.  So then she mentioned Bike Nashbar which I had just paid with PayPal and I was like oh wow that is already showing up on the bank site?  I just paid for that.  I told her I had to use PayPal to pay for it because my debit card was declined.

Oh well, she unlocked my debit card so I can use it again.  You know, I have mixed feelings about all of that.  She said that they locked my card out because it was unusual spending for me.  Well, the day I get my check every month I pay my bills and buy something from a website so how is that unusual spending for me when I do it every month on the same day, the 3rd of each month.  On one hand I'm happy that the bank is looking out for my best interest but on the other hand I'd like to not be embarrassed if I had to go back to the store with a grocery cart filled with food then have my card be declined you know?

Oh well, I'm sure this post was totally unncessary but who cares lol.