Fun with Credit Card Companies

First up, Chase Bank.  I've had this account with Chase for eleven years, and this is the first time I've had any sort of problem...

I made a somewhat larger-than-normal money transfer on my Chase card a couple of weeks ago, and Chase flagged the transaction as possible fraud and made me answer a handful of personal questions (with two different people) to verify my identity and prove that the transaction was legitimate.  During that process, they removed my online access to the account.  That makes sense, since I wouldn't want someone who had possession of my card to be able to view my purchase history or make a payment for me online.  Up until this point, they were doing everything pretty well.

The first problem arose when, after verifying my identity, I was told that my online access wouldn't be re-issued for another three to five business days.  It apparently takes them that long to communicate with their computer people and ask them to flip a switch.  Or maybe it takes them that long to print out the request, walk it down to the mail room, mail it to another location, and have someone open the message and type it in to another computer system.  That is just plain silly, especially for a company that promotes their computer and mobile connectivity.

I waited six business days and logged in to my online account.  Still no access to my credit card--just a page that says I don't have any accounts available.  This wouldn't be too much of a problem except for the fact that I have gone to paperless statements and rely on my online access to view my statement and make payments.  So I call them.  Wait time is seven minutes.  MBNA used to always answer my call immediately.  I explain what's happening and the CSR looks into it and says she can't do anything about it, so she's going to transfer me to the security department.  No wait this time.  The security person asks about my situation and says she is going to transfer me to someone who can help.  Wait time is seven minutes again!  It seems she put me back in the same queue I was in when I first called!  Finally, I talk to another CSR, and he asks me to log out of my account and log back in.  All fixed!  All he had to do was flip a fragging switch!  So twenty-four minutes after I first called, I finally had access to my account.

Chase needs to fix this process.

Next we have Bank of America.  I am not a Bank of America fan.  I didn't sign up for a Bank of America card.  I had an MBNA card, but Bank of America gobbled them up.  I'd get rid of the card, but it's a way cool Star Wars card with Darth Vader on it.  Every time I use it, someone says "cool card".

Unfortunately, Bank of America is ruining the card for me.  First, they do the dumb SiteKey thing when I log in to their web site.  It's supposed to make my online experience more secure by showing me a special picture every time I log in.  It asks me for my login name, then shows me my special picture and asks for my password.  Supposedly, if a phishing site is pretending to be the Bank of America site and wants me to log in, I should realize that the special picture isn't there and I should know not to enter my password.  That's great and all except for the fact that the phishing site could ask me for my user account, connect to the Bank of America site, get my special picture, and then show the picture on the phishing site when it asks for my password.  Useless.

Next, MBNA used to allow me to connect to my online account through Quicken or Microsoft Money and automatcially download my transaction history.  This way, I could keep track of my spending habits and do cool charts and stuff.  Bank of America does this, too, but not for cards that were transferred from MBNA!  Oh, they say it is supposed to work, but it doesn't.  And I'm not the only one with the problem.  So I'm left with a cool-looking card that has an annoying and useless login procedure and no Quicken or Microsoft Money access...  I miss MBNA.