I have an American Express card I got through Costco (one of the big membership discount stores). We typically run up a monthly bill of about $1000 for gasoline, groceries we buy at Costco, medicine, lunch, what-not.
Last month, at the height of the political campaign telephone calls, I got a call from an AMEX (American Express) robo-cop. Since I was full up on robo-cop phone calls, I hung up on them. Later on I checked the messages on my voice mail, and low and behold, they had actually left a message. Something about unusual charges on my card. Well, that's nice, they are actually on top of this kind of thing. So I call them back and find that someone tried to buy a $1000 laptop from Walmart using my card number. Well, that wasn't me. Since it seems someone has gotten hold of my card number, they send me a new one. Okay. That wasn't too painful, and we stopped this thing before it got out of hand.
The only problem is now when I go to buy gasoline at the local station where I have been buying gasoline for years, they want my zip code. This happened once when I was in San Francisco a couple of months ago when I bought something at Walgreens. I was surprised, it had never happened before, but given the location, it seemed like a little extra security might be in order. And it seemed like a reasonable request. Not knowing the zip code might trip up a credit card scammer. But now I'm back in my residence and they are still asking me my zip code. You know it's no big deal, but it's like the Camel with his nose under the tent, or the TSA. It's just one more annoyance that I don't like, need, or want.
So now I'm wondering, did AMEX up their security across the board all at once, and it just happened to be when I was in SF? Or did the bogus charge flag my account no now I get asked for my Zip Code wherever I go? Or is it just the gas station I normally go to that has gotten this extra question? Am I going to have to get a different card, or are all credit cards doing this now? Geez, I might have to go back to using cash.
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3 comments:
About once in every four fill-ups, I get asked for my ZIP code. It's not something peculiar to Amex, either.
Hi Charles,
Sometimes in the USA they ask for my zipcode (33165), not realising I live in Germany, and thus log me as having come all the way from Miami (WTF?).
Is that good or bad? ;-)
I know some stores like to know your zip code so they can learn where their customers are coming from. In this case though I think it is simply a security measure. Does the zip code you give match the one on the card's billing address?
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