If you try to use your credit or debit card and find that it’s been abruptly shut down, thank your bank. They’ve proactively shut down your compromised card, theoretically saving you from a cascade of fraudulent charges. So that’s nice. But what bothered Scott when this happened to him is that no one called him to give him a heads up.

I went to my BoA online banking today and found that my Visa card had disappeared from my list of accounts. I called BoA’s online banking customer service # and was told that my account was closed because the card was reported lost/stolen. I had done no such thing, and so was put on the phone with the credit card department. They informed me that my account was indeed closed, they claimed by Visa, because my card number had been amongst those stolen by hackers.

They claimed that this had happened a mere few hours ago. From a consumer standpoint, this proactive fraud prevention is a good thing. The bad thing is that they did this without sending so much as an email, leaving any card users in the lurch while trying to make legitimate purchases.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.