When it comes to expiration dates, food items are probably the first thing we think of, then prescription medications. But let us not forget the expired credit card. For when we forget, we are surprised. And not the kind of surprise where a party is being thrown in your honor.
I was aware that my primary card was going to expire in May 2026, yet it was not on my radar the way it should have been. When the new version arrived in the mail, I wasn’t ready, even though the calendar was.
Immediately activating the new plastic money, I placed it on my bureau to put in my wallet the next time I used my purse. The following morning, I received an email from Amazon that the order I had placed the day before could not be processed due to a failed payment method. I had checked the new credit card number when it came, it was the same as the previous, but now, using the magnifier on my iPhone, I checked the CVV on the back. It was indeed different.
Going into my Amazon account, the only thing that needed updating in my digital wallet was the expiration date, no security code was required. Now I had to ask myself, What else needs to be checked? I immediately thought of PayPal and, sorely mistakenly, figured I was about done; if there was any other payment methods that required editing, there would only be a few. I could fix them as needed.
Twenty-four hours later, I thought of Venmo.
That evening, I realized all my my hotel and airline accounts had to be changed, as well as Uber, Apple, Rover and several more. Adding UPDATE FOR EXP on my To Do list for the next day, I got in bed to read a little before I went to sleep. But I could not concentrate, all I could think about was the task at hand. And so I started, right then, staying up late to finish the project. “Finish,” by the way, is an optimistic word. Who knows what I missed despite double and triple checking.
Was this the end of the world? It was not. Did I get food poisoning as I might after drinking old milk? No. Did I get salmonella poisoning from eating old chicken? No. Is it done now for four more years? It is.
If only the expiration date on my patience with such things went beyond four minutes.
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