This morning I tried to renew my jConnect account and it didn’t accept my credit card due to some technical problem with their system, so I kept trying. The system finally accepted my credit card. No more than 30 minutes later, I got a voicemail from my credit card company saying that there was suspicious activity on my card and that I had to verify the charges. Apparently each time I tried to update my credit card information, jConnect send through a $1 authorization. They did this 3 times before sending my actual charge. This pattern of small, repeated authorizations apparently triggers a fraud alert on the card. Unfortunately the voicemail credit card company left for me directed me to an automated system that asked me to verify the charges one by one which was a problem because while I only authorized 1 of them, if I said no to the other ones, my card would have been cancelled and it would have been a royal mess. So, I logged into my account, called the number that was listed and talked to a human who removed the fraud alert.
Having had to replace my credit card twice in the last 5 years, I’m very careful about using virtual account numbers (a service my credit card company provides that gives me a new card number for each online transaction) and make sure I always check my statements. If you’ve ever had to replace a credit card (one card was stolen and the other time, the card number was used fraudulently), you know how much a pain in the butt it can be. I’m glad this was only a minor scare and I knew the cause right away.