Discover Aware That Strangers' Bank Accounts Are Linked To My Card, Doesn't Know If I Should Worry

It’s surprising and unsettling enough to find that strangers’ information is suddenly linked to your private credit card account –¬†but what was even weirder for our reader Jessica is that Discover wasn’t even sure if she should be worried about her own info going astray. Definitely a case where customer service was shrugging over the phone.

Jessica says she logged in to pay her Discover card bill, and found not just one, but five bank accounts from which she could choose to make her payment. She wasn’t concerned about three of them, as two were duplicates and one was also hers, but the other two, that was just not right.

I called Discover to alert them to this, and see what was going on. After three transfers, I ended up with Web Support, who told me they were aware of the problem and “working to fix it” — and in the meantime I could delete the unfamiliar accounts and to be sure and check out ShopDiscover for great deals on lots of merchandise.

I asked if I should be concerned that my bank account might be connected to someone else’s credit card account, and they said they didn’t know. The bank accounts are, as of today, still showing up in my account.

It wouldn’t be a stretch for Jessica’s information to also be in someone’s account by mistake. And perhaps that other customer might not be as honest and upstanding as she is, and could take advantage of such information. So Discover being unsure if she should be concerned means yes, might as well go ahead and be concerned.

Jessica wonders if this is happening to anyone else, and we haven’t heard other stories as of yet. Let her know in the comments if you’re also experiencing problems.

UPDATE: Laura, a rep from Discover reached out this morning to assure customers that what they are seeing is NOT information from strangers’ bank accounts:

I’m an official Discover representative and wanted to assure you that the bank accounts you are seeing are yours. They are accounts you’ve used to pay your Discover card balance in the past. Some of these accounts may be unrecognizable because they are either old or under new ownership given consolidation in the banking industry. If there are any that you no longer use to pay your bill, you can always delete them from your Discover.com account.

You are welcome to reach out to me at mediarelations@discover.com if you have any questions or would like to confirm that these accounts are, in fact, yours. But meanwhile, rest assured that the information on your Discover card account remains secure.

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