When I received a text from my bank looking for confirmation that a charge was valid, I immediately did not recognize the amount or the seller. Checking my email to double-check recent purchases before replying “F” for Fraud, a text response instructed me to call the bank.
I asked my husband to stand by. Although I have my card number memorized, I wanted his eyes nearby if I needed them for something. Placing the call on speaker, I verified with the customer service representative that the charge was a fraud. She said that my card was blocked and then Mister Rain interrupted.
“Wait a minute. You pay that one app $212 every month. That must be it.”
I was totally and utterly confused.
“No, I don’t. I pay $20 a month for that.” When I had first received the text from the bank I had the thought that possibly it was time for this subscription to renew and I was being billed for the year, but even I can quickly do that math to calculate that $20 / month is not $212 / year.
“Yeah, you do. There’s a $212 charge every month.”
To the phone I said, “Can we please put this on hold? I will call back.”
Out of a 6” device in my hand I heard this: “The card has been blocked. You will need to get a new one.”
Crap.
Thanking the bank rep, I still didn’t understand what was going on. All I knew was that now I was going to have to go through the hoops to get a new card. And with my creaky knees, jumping is no longer my strong suit.
My husband returned to whatever he had been doing while I started a full investigation, reviewing subscriptions in Settings on my iPhone, scouring emails, logging into accounts. After just a few minutes, I made the discovery and cracked the case. The app has a $20 / month level, which is what I thought I had. But they also have a $200 / month tier, which I have been paying far too long. Actually, one month was too long. I had no idea this was going on which isn’t like me at all. So much for my attention to detail. Who’s the fraud now?
Finding Mister Rain I filled him in. I also asked why, when he began to see this charge every 30 days, he didn’t say something. He doesn’t police my spending, but I do alert him when a larger amount is going to hit our account.
“I know you use that app a lot, so I didn’t question it.”
I was pretty perturbed about both having to get a new card and all that would follow (click here). Mostly, though, I was upset with myself for this slipping by me.
These days you often hear the term, “reframing,” where you change the way you look at a situation to give it a more positive meaning. I will admit this, like jumping, isn’t one of my strengths, though I do try. Once a little time had passed, I realized that had I not received the alert from the bank I would have continued paying $212 a month without knowing it. So the hassle of replacing my card is outweighed by the $180 I have saved each month.
I will never have an Amex Black Card, but on this day my debit card was a silver lining.
#SisterRain #ALittleSightALotOfHeart #LegallyBlindWriter #HumanInterest #Life #LifeIsGood #LifeStories
