Remember TJX’s gigantic security breach problems last year, where data on 94 million accounts was stolen? Good for you, because apparently TJX doesn’t. A former employee of a TJX store in Lawrence, Kansas was fired recently for posting anonymous complaints online about the current sorry state of his store’s security, which included the store manager writing server login and password information on a sticky note, and the store resetting employee passwords to blank fields.
credit cards
Contact Information For Chase CEOs
By 5.22.08
Here’s the contact info for the CEOs of major Chase divisions:
USAA Lays Smackdown On Shady Enterprise Rental
By 5.22.08
USAA is like a unicorn in a pack of walruses: a financial services company that truly cares about its customers and really helps them out. Not as some kind of lucky exception, but as a matter of policy. Reader “Mary Marsala With Fries'” story, about how USAA opened up several cans of whoop-ass on an Enterprise facility that was trying to screw her over on charges, is yet further proof.
Best Buy's "Same As Cash" Credit Card Conceals Major Hidden Fees
By 5.22.08
Reader Jason just finished paying off his 0% Best Buy/HSBC credit card, or so he thought, because this devilish card just sucker-punched him with a load of hidden fees. He did some research and found out he was entered into a program that makes him pay for “debt cancellation,” something Best Buy never discussed with him. He also discovered that there are many other people who feel tricked into joining this strange program. To make matters worse, HSBC, the card issuing bank, is giving Jason the runaround about reversing the fees. Jason’s letter, inside…
Policy: Blockbuster Debits $1 To Test Your Card, Then Charges You For Your Rental
By 5.21.08
For every debit or credit card transaction at Blockbuster, the company will now debit $1 to “test” your card. If the transaction goes through, they’ll then debit the full amount of your purchase. Blockbuster tells us your dollar will be returned in 3-10 business days. Reader Jason says he rented a game on Thursday and hasn’t gotten the dollar Blockbuster borrowed back yet. Will he get it before the 10 days is up?
L.L. Bean Is Breaking Up With Bank Of America, Effective July 1, 2008
By 5.20.08
Reader Tim scanned a letter he got from Bank of America announcing that the bank and retailer L.L. Bean were breaking up.
Citibank Swears The Card Is In The Mail. Liars.
By 5.19.08
Tammy’s been trying to get a new Citibank card to replace her expired one since March. For two months Citibank has lied, stalled, and generally screwed around with her access to her money. For two months, a a series of increasingly senior people have told her her card is on the way. They even told her they’d overnight it, twice. Read her story,
Are You A Sucker For Using Your Credit Card?
By 5.18.08
Nationally syndicated personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary thinks you’re a sucker for using your credit cards, even if you pay off your bills in full each month.
Banana Republic Sends You A Mysterious Visa Credit Card After You Opted Out
By 5.16.08
Reader Tim says that Banana Republic sent him a Visa after he opted out of the program and that the card’s mailer was misleading (it looked like a replacement for his regular Banana Republic card, not a new “optional” Visa account) and didn’t disclose important details… like the card’s interest rate.
Banana Republic: Sorry Our Credit Card Website Sucks, Try Not Using It
By 5.15.08
Reader Maegan wrote Banana Republic to let them know that their credit card website was buggy and annoying to use. She got back a canned response that halfheartedly apologized for the state of their website and recommended that she use another service to pay her bill.
Discover Card And The Tale Of The $502.55 Tank Of Gas
By 5.14.08
If a gas pump ever accidentally charges you $502.55 for 17 gallons of gas, you’d expect to be able to quickly and easily challenge that charge with your credit card. Unfortunately for James Maddux of Collinsville, OK, it wasn’t that simple.
Apple Escorts You From The Store For Trying To Purchase An iPhone With Cash
By 5.12.08
As loyal readers already know, Apple doesn’t accept cash for the iPhone — a policy they say is designed to discourage resellers from getting their grubby little hands on the precious cellphone. This policy does have a tendency to backfire every now and then when a legitimate customer wants to purchase an iPhone with cash. Meet Alex Palen– he was refused an iPhone because he doesn’t have a credit or debit card and was escorted from the store when he asked another customer to accept cash in exchange for charging the phone to their card.
Store-Branded Credit Cards Triple How Often Cardholder Shops There
By 5.12.08
They tell us if we can get someone to sign up, and be approved, that we have guaranteed that that customer will shop at our store, on average, three times more often than they would have if they didn’t have a card with our store’s name on it.
Watch For Baloney "Reservation Rewards" Charges On Your Credit Card
By 5.9.08
You know when you buy tickets at Movietickets.com or Fandango and at that end that annoying popup window makes a noise and asks you if you want to save $10 on your next purchase? Yeah, don’t enter your email address. In the fine print it tells you that doing so…
Chargebacks Have Geographical Limitations
By 5.9.08
Longtime Consumerist reader TBT read the fine print for a credit card she recently opened with Bank of America, and discovered that buried in pages 13 and 14 is a section that limits your right to request a chargeback to your home state or within 100 miles of your home address, and only for purchases over $50. He found this shocking, but, actually, this is a limitation provided by the Fair Credit Billing Act. If you dislike it, here’s a great post of ours on writing effective letters to Congress.
