fbpx
:::: MENU ::::

What Do You Do If A Credit Card Employee Calls You?

by

I would definitely call myself a nervous nellie when it comes to scams. If something doesn’t seem right, I question it. That includes all telephone calls that I receive from people that I don’t know. I don’t usually agree to anything over the phone and I never give information out unless I am certain the call is for real. Sometimes I feel like a ‘b’ with an ‘itch’ but nowadays you never know.

On Tuesday, I received a call but I was unable to catch it before the answering machine picked up. It turns out it was someone claiming to be from my credit card company and he needed to talk to me. He gave a number to call him back.

First thing I did was look at the caller ID. It came back “Unknown.” Hmm…

There are some scams out there that hope to get you to call back. So I didn’t. Instead, I took my credit card out and called the number on the back. I have to say, I’ve been having great luck lately with very helpful customer service representatives.

I explained to the woman that I had received a call and was given a number. I also told her how I am hesitant to call the number and I would like to see if she knew what it was about. I thought maybe it was because of my call a few days before when I requested to be taken off their marketing list.

The representative didn’t see anything on my account about them trying to contact me. So she asked me for the number I was given and she and put me on hold. She was going to try to look it up really quick. After a few minutes, she came back on and told me she couldn’t find it right off bat, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a number from their company. She said that their directory is many pages long. I believe it.

I asked her if there was anything that I can do to try to ensure that when I call the number, I am dealing with the actual company. She gave me some pointers:

Always get the representative’s name and their department. Asking for this information can narrow things down if you still feel uncomfortable about the call and want to call the number on the back of your card again.

The representative should be able to answer your question about your current balance and due date. If you are wondering about the validity of the call, ask the representative to tell you your current balance and your due date. They are allowed to give out that info, and it should be correct. If not, a red flag should go up.

By law, the company cannot give you your personally identifiable information over the phone. This is why they always ask you to verify your name and address. They cannot give you that information. You have to provide it to them. That said, they should not be asking you to verify your social security number.

Calls from their company (and likely many other credit card companies) will come up on a caller ID as “Unknown.” The representative explained to me that their phone system is complicated and it doesn’t show a number on a caller ID.

If you are still concerned, call the number on the back of your card and give them the information you collected. They will look into it and possibly report the incident to their security department.

In my case, the call I received was valid. As soon as I asked what department, they told me that it was for new card application division. I had just applied for a card, so it made sense. To seal the deal, I asked them what card I applied for. They got it correct. Continuing with the call, they knew my credit limits for the other cards I had with that company so I knew I was scam-free with this call.

It took me a few more minutes to question the call, but I found out some good useful info that I was able to share with you 🙂

The Offer That’s Better than 3.9%

by

Yesterday, I shared with everyone my experience with learning that you could shift credit limits around when you have cards issued by the same parent company. During the same call, I was given an offer of 3.9% for the life of the balance transfer. Very good deal, but I decided to wait a bit before deciding. I am glad I did.

The 0% balance transfer credit card that I applied for called me yesterday. Now, there aren’t to many zero percent offers out there, so I applied for one with the same parent company as the other two cards I discussed yesterday. They said I was approved, but I had maxed out my available credit. What they could do is give me a card with a $500 limit. Or, they could take some of the credit limit I had from my one card and transfer it to the new card.

First thing out of my mouth after she said that…”And then I can use the zero percent balance transfer offer using the credit I just transferred over?”

She said yes!

I went through a little bit of deja vu with asking this operator similar questions as the one from the other day. But I had to make sure I wasn’t going to get in trouble with this deal and not be able to take advantage of it. I decided to go ahead and transfer over some of my credit limit.

I now have the ability to get all of our credit card debt at zero percent for a year. I haven’t decided yet whether I will transfer all of our credit card debt or just a portion. I still have the 3.9% for life offer available. A lot of my decision will be based on some news that I am waiting on. Hopefully I will hear about that no later than next week.

This call brought about an interesting conversation I had with a customer service rep. I’ll share what I learned with you tomorrow. I ran out of time to finish it tonight.

EDIT: I may not have been clear when I let everyone in on what is happening with the 3.9% offer. That card does not have an existing balance. None of the cards that I am discussing right now have one, because I shifted all debt to one of my husband’s cards almost two months ago. It’s sitting there at 9.9%, except for about half that is at 5.9%. Sorry for the confusion.