BERIGAN Posted April 19, 2005 Report Share Posted April 19, 2005 (edited) So, I am thinking, time to make a payment on my ol' Discover card. I sign in, page says.... Account center home Account summary Current Balance $1,383.09 Last Statement Balance $1,262.55 Minimum Payment Due Apr. 26 $26.00 Credit Available $507.00 Credit Limit $1,900.00 Available Cash $516.00 I then click on this month's statement, (ending March 27th) Discover® Card Account Summary Credit Limit $ 1,401.00 Credit Available $ 138.00 Cash Credit Limit $ 800.00 Cash Credit Available $ 138.00 This is one of too many credit cards I have, I don't use it much,(Did charge $120 for a rolling table for Mom to use in bed) I am trying to pay down some higher interest cards at this time, before I attack this one. So, my paper statement and the online one for March say I have only $ 138 of credit, but as you can see on my Account home page, it says I have a credit limit of $1900, and $507 available for credit, and $516 for cash advances!!! So, what has happened since they mailed out the statement? They think it would be nice to surprise me with a bit more credit, just didn't want to tell me about it? (And hey, give him 9 more bucks if he really needs to get a cash advance!) Did they think like I did that a $1401 limit was just a weird limit? I guess the home page will be the most up to date one, but wouldn't it hurt your head to see to different credit limits from the same company at basically the same time? Oh, I forgot, the March statement says I have $138 of credit available, $138 of cash credit available, but I have a cash credit limit of $800...I guess IF I have $800 on my card that is all I could take off the card, right??? double Edited April 19, 2005 by BERIGAN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Moments Posted April 19, 2005 Report Share Posted April 19, 2005 i guess i am the only one who knows what "gaslight" means. . . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertrand Posted April 19, 2005 Report Share Posted April 19, 2005 (edited) Discover once helped themselves to an extra $1,000 when I made a payment. They claimed the computer misread the amount (through the envelope!), but I say that's bullshit. I asked my other cards, and they said their computer matched the handwritten amount to the amount in digits, so this should not occur. I asked Discover to let me know if they plan to change the computer program, but I've heard nothing so far. Bertrand. Edited April 19, 2005 by bertrand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted April 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2005 Discover once helped themselves to an extra $1,000 when I made a payment. They claimed the computer misread the amount (through the envelope!), but I say that's bullshit. I asked my other cards, and they said their computer matched the handwritten amount to the amount in digits, so this should not occur. I asked Discover to let me know if they plan to change the computer program, but I've heard nothing so far. Bertrand. Man, that sucks! Do you do the .00 for cents, or 00 over the -- mark?(And zeros under the slash, does this make sense?) I just wrote a check to the IRS and they want the .00 for cents, but it seems to me a digital reader could miss a decimal point....I would think it would be something you could fight with your bank, surely it is illegal to write a check for a hundred, and have someone cash it for a $1000! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted April 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2005 i guess i am the only one who knows what "gaslight" means. . . . . only we old fogeys know it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted April 19, 2005 Report Share Posted April 19, 2005 i guess i am the only one who knows what "gaslight" means. . . . . only we old fogeys know it! Hell, I'm older than you, and I don't have a clue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted April 19, 2005 Report Share Posted April 19, 2005 i guess i am the only one who knows what "gaslight" means. . . . . only we old fogeys know it! Hell, I'm older than you, and I don't have a clue... same here. (well, BM is a few months older) :rsly: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted April 19, 2005 Report Share Posted April 19, 2005 Well I get it. I guess another sign that I'm really old. (Hint: A film with Ingrid Bergman-- which for some reason many people think is by Hitchcock.) ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted April 19, 2005 Report Share Posted April 19, 2005 Well I get it. I guess another sign that I'm really old. (Hint: A film with Ingrid Bergman-- which for some reason many people think is by Hitchcock.) ) Oh, duh.... (insert embarrassed smilie here) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Moments Posted April 20, 2005 Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted April 20, 2005 Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 Looks to me like Berigan needs to get control of his finances. Maybe a private (read "personal") account will save his ass. B-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted April 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 Looks to me like Berigan needs to get control of his finances. Maybe a private (read "personal") account will save his ass. B-) Nah, I'll count on a robust 900 bucks a month paid for by your grandkids! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris olivarez Posted April 20, 2005 Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 I had a Discover card at one time. My recollection is that they were one of the worst of the lot with a ridiculous interest rate. My advice to you is to pay it off and cut it up ASAP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainyDay Posted April 20, 2005 Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 The reason no one knows what "gaslight" means in this context is because it doesn't have anything to do with getting ripped off by your credit card company. They're not trying to drive you slowly insane, just steal from you. That's not "gaslight," that's American capitalism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christiern Posted April 20, 2005 Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 It's not about slowly driving someone insane, it's about: "We'll go out for dinner--no we won't." Berigan's analogy is a good one, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 20, 2005 Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 Discover once helped themselves to an extra $1,000 when I made a payment. They claimed the computer misread the amount (through the envelope!), but I say that's bullshit. I asked my other cards, and they said their computer matched the handwritten amount to the amount in digits, so this should not occur. I asked Discover to let me know if they plan to change the computer program, but I've heard nothing so far. Bertrand. Man, that sucks! Do you do the .00 for cents, or 00 over the -- mark?(And zeros under the slash, does this make sense?) I just wrote a check to the IRS and they want the .00 for cents, but it seems to me a digital reader could miss a decimal point....I would think it would be something you could fight with your bank, surely it is illegal to write a check for a hundred, and have someone cash it for a $1000! I work in a payment processing center that uses OCR, and although I have no idea what type of system Discover uses, I can maybe offer some general information as to how this might have happened, at least in our system. Your payment coupon has a scanline at the bottom, which includes, among other things, your account number, and a payment amount (or two), which usually includes the full balance due and/or the minimum payment due. The payment envelopes that are of "standard" bulk (i,e. - one coupon and one check only) then get opened and read mechanically. If the amount read by the machine matches either one of the amounts on the coupon, that's as far as it goes - all the checks that meet this criterion are bundled together and sent off for encoding, and then straight to the bank for deposit, etc. The ones that don't get a "kill" are subject to further examination. In our operation, it's done through imaging - technicians see a captured image of the check and go from there. Ideally, these technicians assign a value to the check based on the amount written on the legal line, which is, as the mname implies, the actual negotiable value of the check. However, these techs are on production, and it's a helluva lot faster for them to key the numerical amount written in the courtesy box. So - if the image is less than perfect (quite common), or if there's a distortion to the image (ditto), or if there's a stray mark (same), or if the tech accidentally keys an amount with the decimal in the wrong place (not at all hard to do, although a thousand dollars would require some major miskeying,,,), and/or if the same tech is in a hurry (it's pretty mindboggling how many payments a major processing center processes per hour, especially on a high volume day, and production quotas are some folk's raison d'etre, staff and management alike), voila - there's your error. Now - shouldn't your bank catch this before the money goes out of your account? That depends - groups of encoded checks (called "batches") run through your bank like water through a sieve, and the total of the reported (by the company) encoded value of each batch is matched against what the bank's machine actually records. If everything balances, nobody gives it a second thought (or look), and it's up to the customer (you) to spot the error. If, however, a batch does not balance, or if there is a mechanical error processing the batch, then it gets looked at, and all encoded values are matched against the amount written on the legal line. That's when an error is picked up on by your bank. Like I said, that's the way it goes with the company I work for. Don't know how different Discover is, but it can't be that different. Something else, though - it's been my continued experience that the average Custome Service rep don't know jack shit about the inner workings of their company's payment processing operation. Or, if they know anything, it's just enough to make up a bunch of speculative bullshit to feed/placate the irate customers who call in needing errors to be fixed. Nobody in the coprporate world, it seems, is able to fess up to simple human error. It's always something else, except when there's inter-departmental power trips going on, which is most of the time. Anyway, I'd be less upset about the error happening (assuming that it was quickly and effectively resolved) than ignorance/buck-passing of everybody involved. And - if your bank didn't catch the error, I'd give them a call too. They need to know about it as well, for the purposes of their QC evaluation process Bottom line in matters such as this -the process is becoming increasingly "hands off", and the technology ain't near good enough to yield flawless results yet. In time, it probably will be, but thattime is not "just around the corner". The process is getting incredibly faster (and therefore, in the eyes of those who rule, more "efficient", which is to say cheaper), but it leave ample opportunities for errors such as the one you had. Nobody in a postiion of visibility wants to openly admit to that, but there it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertrand Posted April 20, 2005 Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 'If the amount read by the machine matches either one of the amounts on the coupon, that's as far as it goes - all the checks that meet this criterion are bundled together and sent off for encoding, and then straight to the bank for deposit, etc.' If the machine did read an extra $1,000 from my check, then it would have noticed a mismatch with the pre-printed amount on the coupon (I was paying the full balance, not the minimum). So right there extra processing was required. From what they told me at Discover, they don't do this first match as you described. That's what made me angry. I stopped using the card, but my wife continues to do so. Bertrand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 20, 2005 Report Share Posted April 20, 2005 If the machine did read an extra $1,000 from my check, then it would have noticed a mismatch with the pre-printed amount on the coupon (I was paying the full balance, not the minimum). So right there extra processing was required. From what they told me at Discover, they don't do this first match as you described. That's what made me angry. If they didn't, if they automatically accept "odd" OCR readings w/o any further human intervention, then that's incredibly piss-poor procedure. But it would also be incredibly cheaper, so who knows? No matter, for a company that size to not have at least minimal QC procedural safeguards in place... Not saying that that's not the way it is, but like I said, your typical Customer Service rep don't know squat about how the processing really goes down. Human error would, I should hope, be the more likely culprit, but maybe not. Also, here's a "dark little secret" -a lot of this type of data-entry work is being outsourced to foreign countries. The imaging technology makes it possible, since the checks stay at the processing center awaing whatever data completion neds to be done, and it can be done anywhere. If you want to really know how it works, skip the phonedrones & contact the processing center directly, or at least as directly as possible. Or even better, the head of the processing department. A lot og things go on "in the trenches" that the "brain trust" is either unaware of or looks the other way on. But when they start getting calls from customers, especially angry customers who threaten to make noise, they turn up the heat in said trenches to get the act together, at least for a little while. Make noise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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