Fraud Hangs Out at the Gym

My bank interpreted my buying a gym membership Saturday as "suspicious activity" and deactivated my debit card. Perhaps they know me too well.

My bank interpreted my buying a gym membership Saturday as "suspicious activity" and deactivated my debit card. Perhaps they know me too well.

But that gym membership, along with the online purchase of a Mother's Day gift, a birthday dinner for a friend and a fresh MTA MetroCard, made for a busy day of spending that apparently set off alarms with my bank. A failed attempt to pay a taxi fare at the end of the night was my first indication that anything was wrong. And the end of a taxi ride is no time for a card transaction to be declined.

For the purposes of this story, we'll just say my primary bank has more ATM locations in New York than there are Dunkin' Donuts franchises. That's no small feat.

I try to bank smart; I have account alerts set up to multiple channels, I use both SMS and mobile browser banking, and I generally feel like I can access real-time information on the state of my primary checking account. Understandably, I was disappointed that my bank failed to alert me to the suspected fraud and deactivation of my debit card through a phone call, text message, e-mail or its own website. The bank's ATMs offered no clues as to why I couldn't make a transaction, and its automated phone service gave me a very general message saying my account information was not currently available.

Through the course of several phone calls, I was able to reach a human representative. They directed me to the bank's fraud prevention department, where I then verified my identity and my previous day's purchases. My card was eventually reactivated, but not before we came across another potential problem.

I moved to New York in December. When I reached the city five months ago, one of the first things I did was update my address with my bank. Somehow, while the record was updated on the online banking site, the bank's customer service and fraud prevention department still had a Denver address as my primary location. I was surprised to learn that, and feel it no doubt added to the suspected fraud.

But on a larger scale, I feel like these things shouldn't happen to begin with. Automated account alerts should be fail-proof. Changes to personal account information made through a bank's website should be universal. Card deactivation should come with clearly communicated justification. The process of interacting with customers and alerting them to potentially harmful activity should be transparent.

Ultimately I was happy my bank's fraud protection worked so well. But a lack of information and a frozen bank account is scary. As consumers we expect to know when something this significant happens, and be able to act on it immediately. The longer we are in the dark as to why our bank accounts don't work, the more frustrating it gets.