Note: If this had been an isolated incident that has happened to just me, I would not diary it here. But I posted this at my blog and already two people have come forth with the same experience. So if you have had a credit card hold put on your charge account after making donations to Democrats, I hope you'll post your comments on my original post. I would say to do it here except that this post is going to disappear quickly. Thank you.
No, I am not joking. Tonight I got a message from Bigass Bank asking me to call to verify charges that had put a security hold on my credit card account. I called Bigass Bank back, and got an overly-friendly young man who was clearly in Bangalore congratulating me on my vigilance in ensuring the integrity of my account.
More on the flip side...
When I told him to cut the crap and just tell me what the flagged charges were, he cited four charges: One was to Skype for a three-month subscription to the service's unlimited calls to 36 countries that I need for those 2:30 AM teleconferences with my team China, Australia and Korea. One was for Maggie's echocardiogram at the vet (her ticker is fine, thanks for asking -- what appeared to be a heart murmur is a high-pitched sound that is not uncommon when cats are stressed, LIKE WHEN YOU HAVE TO RUSH THEM TO THE EMERGENCY VET BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN GNAWING ON FRIGGIN' MOUSE BAIT, as we had to last summer). And then there were two charges for donations to "Obama for America" and "Franken for Senate."
Look, I'm all for vigilance on the part of the credit card companies to keep both their losses and my hassles to a minimum if my card number is stolen. Capital One does an especially job of striking a balance OK, I can buy that the Skype purchase might flag something. But a charge to "The Vet at the Barn"? I frankly think that Bigass Bank is flagging cards containing political contributions to Democrats for "security holds".
So there's only one thing I can do. Make donations this weekend to Darcy Burner, a progressive Democrat running for Congress in Washington state who really needs the money in these last days before the election and Scott Kleeb, who's running a close Senate race in Nebraska. And Dennis Shulman right here in my own Congressional district. And maybe I'll kick in another few bucks for Franken.
Let's see if they flag my card again.
Stay tuned.