T O T K a t - 2 0 0 6

I regularly check the state of my bank accounts and credit cards just to be sure everything s going OK and things are in the right place/have been paid etc. I checked today to see how I'm doing a few days before pay day. I saw my credit card balance and boggled. I thought I had just paid off the (smallish) balance. And I had. But since then and before my next paper statement will be issued, someone had been using my credit card details. To the tune of a not insignificant amount, in suspicious ways (i.e. multiple transactions in the same day for the same round number), in a different country, buying things from shops I just wouldn't even look in never mind buy anything from.

Three phone calls later and my card is cancelled, I've shredded the card (oh god that's theraputic using that shredding machine for cards and floppies etc), I've got a new card coming at some point and I'll be getting the money back in a few weeks. However, I had to endure some pretty insulting questioning, being asked the same questions several times, with the implication that I had been stupid/negligent in some way. Yes, I know people are. But when I'm asked three times where I keep my card and whether I could prove/be sure of where it was on the days the transactions were made (which differ between my online banking and the dates I was quoted on the phone)... *sigh*