My friend couldn't use her own bank card without her bank's permission. [View all]

[Justice wanted]

Have "protecting customers" gone overboard.

I give you 2 examples.


1) My friens recently moved back to the Western PA area. She started 3 bank accounts and got 2 Visa/MAC cards. So She's about 20 mins away from the Ohio line and likw most of us she decided to go to the malls over in ohio. Before getting to the mall she decided to get gas and wanted to use her Bank card to get the gas. The first card was rejected at the pump. So she decided to go into the store and prepaid. Again neither one of the cards could be used. She decided to use a regular credit card. She was upset about it because she had over 4,000 in the one account and 10,000 in the other. She was pissed and went back home instead of shopping. She called the bank to find out why she couldn't use the cards. Turns out Because she wasn't in her "alotted zone" the funds are frozen and it is flag as a possible stolen card. She was basically told by her bank that IF she wants to use her cards outside of the Zone they listed her cards as being able to use she had to call them to let them know she was going out of the are and PLEASE don't keep my money Frozen.

She quickly closed those accounts and found a bank that wasn't going to do that to her.

2) My Aunt lives in PA. She has a daughter living in California. So naturally my aunt goes out to visit her daughter and grandkids. At one visit she wanted to go to a retail chain store with a store card. She decided to take the grandkids to the store to buy them clothes. She went to check out and use the store card she had. Well for some reason the process is taking longer than it should. Suddenly her cell phone rings. It is the Corporate office of that store asking why she had not reported her card as stolen because they see someone is trying to use it in California. My aunt informed the person on the line that her card WAS NOT stolen and asked how much do they monitor her transactions? The woman got snippy with my aunt saying THEY where protecting her best interest and IF she wanted to use her card she should have informed them she was traveling.


Too me I think it has gotten too crazy and stupid.