If I was a cynic, I’d swear that The Provider planned this passage of events all along to limit the amount of damage I might do this week!
Because he’s away. Fishing with the boys off the Top End somewhere and undoubtedly having the time of his life. Which will have to pause for a second when he gets close enough to land (and phone reception) to receive my lengthy text message.
Because like Houston, we do indeed have a problem.
I was visiting sports physio Andy the other afternoon with Son#2. We’ve seen Andy a fair bit this year, to the point we’re now friends on first-name basis. Son#2 had tackled a boy of South Pacific origin during a school rugby league game… a boy much, MUCH larger than himself. He copped a very heavy knock above the knee for his trouble, resulting in his knee swelling up to resemble one from a contestant on the Biggest Loser, pre-weight loss. All I can say is thank God the grand final was last week!
I took a look and very quickly decided we needed Andy’s professional opinion just to be sure (knee is fine, no ligament damage, just very bruised and will be okay in a couple of weeks). Strolling out to reception to sort the paper work, I automatically handed over my credit card to settle our account. “Oh, I’m sorry,” the 20-something receptionist says a few moments later, “it’s says it’s been declined.”
WOT CHOO TALKIN’ ‘BOUT, WILLIS??
I think my shock at this news must have been fairly apparent. “I’ll try it again,” she said rather quickly, “sometimes it’s the line. It drops out every now and then.” I’m standing there trying not to notice the packed reception area behind me and feeling my pulse rate elevate by the second. Why does it suddenly seem so quiet when you’re in these situations? AGAIN my card was declined. WTF? It was nothing short of a miracle that I had enough cash in my wallet (a very rare occurrence) to pay. My only other option would’ve been leaving one of the boys as collateral! Two steps out of there, I was on the phone.
Turns out our card had been scammed. Some lowlife had tried to use it to buy flights on United Airlines and Philippines Air that same day so the bank had quite rightly blocked it, which was why it kept coming up as declined. We’d need to have new cards issued as the old card was now compromised. Okay, great, let’s do that, I said. There was just one problem – The Provider is the main account holder, not me, so they needed to speak to him before they could do this.
Oh, FFS.
I can’t fault my bank, they did what they should have. And the lady I spoke to was extremely sympathetic, explaining that if I needed to use the card urgently to just call, they’d unblock it so I could use it, then re-block it afterward. But we’d still have to wait for The Provider to come home to sort it out properly, once and for all.
It’s such a pain in the arse. And feels rather Victorian. And of course this would happen while my other half is totally incommunicado, wouldn’t it? I was able to make other arrangements for money so it’s not like we’re destitute until he returns but my inner self who is TOTALLY capable of running her own life was feeling a bit put out. She doesn’t need a husband to ‘handle’ things! *indignant snort* Anyone who knows us realises that this is soooo not the way our life together is.
But rules are rules. And when The Provider is home on Friday we will deal with that particular dumb rule then. As well as addressing the ‘main’ cardholder thing. Can you have ‘joint’ cardholders? Or perhaps I should just have my own card as well… you know, just for emergencies? That’d fix that. Hee hee.
Have you ever had your credit card number scammed? What happened? How helpful was your bank?
Leave a Reply