Along with
MasterCard in a not so subtle marketing campaign, proclaiming themselves as the
“Future of Money” no doubt in a cashless society, it seems they need
even more revenue. Every other month a different travel organization or
insurance company will call with a ‘Free for Thirty Days’ offer you
are not supposed to be able to refuse. This practice has been around for
awhile.
What’s fairly new is the
practice of MasterCard and the issuing bank assisting other companies to charge
a product or service on your card without any prior agreement from you.
It works this way:
- The customer discovered an unauthorized
charge of $59.95 on his credit card statement. The charge was identified as
‘Shoppers Advantage’.
- The following month two more charges for
$59.95 each appeared on his statement. One listed ‘Travelers
Advantage’ as the billing company. The final one was named ‘Privacy
Guard’. Each one listed a different eight hundred number on the statement
next to the charge.
- All three unauthorized, annual service
charges originate from the same corporate entity. Cendant Corporation of
Stamford, Connecticut owns and operates all three. Their telemarketing centers
are located in Texas, Virginia, and Ohio. No Cendant corporate officer wanted
to discuss this issue.
- A Wells Fargo public relations manager
mentioned that they only issue garbled account numbers to these organizations.
We asked if these numbers were not tied to the bank’s database and as
such, would be subject to decoding by any fourth grader with a keyboard, she
refused to give any more information.
- A Cendant employee made the point that they
do not solicit. That the issuing bank solicits and passes the willing
customer’s name on to them for processing. Obviously they don’t
always call and hope that you will miss the charge or forget to call and
investigate its origin. The point seems to be to get the annual fee, regardless
of whether you ever use the service.
So what exactly is the
proffering that mysteriously appears on your credit card statements? Shoppers
Advantage and Travelers Advantage would seem to be self-explanatory, but
Privacy Guard was particularly intriguing.
The service, we were told,
offers your Credit Report from the big three repositories, Driving Report and
Social Security Report. Were you aware that your Social Security Report
existed? Do you know what it contains? How often would you want one? Who else
has access to these reports?
The Coup de Gras is that the
Privacy Guard, once you sign up is also available to keep fraudulent
transactions from invading your credit cards. Excuse me but isn’t that how
they got to you in the first place, fraudulently? The fact is that in an
overwhelming majority of cases the bank doesn’t call you. They simply pass
on the credit card number and the charge appears on your statement. If you do
not call to cancel within a specific amount of time, usually thirty to sixty
days, you are the proud owner of a membership you know little to nothing about.
How do you feel about allowing a
bank that issues credit cards to invade your financial privacy in this manner?
It may take a little time, but it would be well worth the inconvenience for you
to contact the issuing institutions today and make certain that this type of
swindle is not happening to you right now.
It always seems worse when some
huge, sly corporation preys on the very old or young, but it can happen to any
of us at any time. We have heard from a multitude of middle age, middle class
individuals that the same thing happens to them about once every two or three
months. Ah, where are the days when an honest robber just took your valuables
and disappeared? These greed-infested vermin are with us forever
The final question might be what
the bank gets out of this. Your bank has a fiduciary relationship with you. But
selling customer lists is big business, handing over names, and credit card
numbers has to be gigantic. This practice is a profit center for them and the
victim is you.
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