Dearest Rachel –
Sometimes, I have several story lines going on at the same time, and start one or two letters to you, hoping I can flesh them out before the situation itself goes stale. Other times, an idea occurs to me that requires me to at least set up the framework before I forget it, but otherwise I don’t really have any time frame in which to assemble it. The past couple of days have had me juggling both types of stories, as inspiration got busy enough that I had to send out two letters yesterday; one covering what I thought of was the calm (even boredom) of the upcoming month, and another telling about the events of the weekend just past (and therefore, I might point out, not technically having anything to do with June). Even as I was wrapping these up, a new thought occurred to me to start up, in case I needed a topic to talk to you about this morning because nothing interesting had happened in the last twenty-four hours or so.
And I may yet be able to use it, but not today. As it turned out, I had no need to concern myself about whether I would have events to tell you about; stuff just keeps happening to us here.
There are a couple of pieces to this story, and they may seem to be unrelated at first, but allow me to describe them to you individually first; they should make sense eventually, once they’re brought together as a whole. The first part comes from the fact that I’d somehow lost a credit card en route to the island early last month. However, when I would go online and (among other tasks) check the activity on the card, I saw no activity after my purchase of gas at a station along the way. I assumed that if I’d dropped it in a public space, someone would find it and try to use it immediately, before its rightful owner shut it down. Since that didn’t happen, I assumed it had just somehow been misplaced in the car or something, and could carry on as if nothing untoward had happened.
However, I couldn’t simply shrug my shoulders and just not use the card going forward. There is at least one major retailer (well, they call themselves a ‘wholesaler,’ but you get the idea) that only accepts Visa cards, and this was my only Visa card. So I contacted the issuing bank, and had them issue a replacement, to be delivered to the house once Daniel and I returned (which, since it would take some seven to ten business days for them to do so, would barely cause a hiccup in my schedule). All was well, or so it seemed.
Now, a quick word about this card; not only is it my one Visa card, it’s specifically a Royal Caribbean Visa card. You might remember that we signed up for it while aboard the Liberty of the Seas with Ellen back in 2007; at the time, we were informed it would give us credits for a future cruise – which, to be honest, I couldn’t tell you whether we ever managed to actually use. Presumably, though, there would be some benefit to using it when purchasing a cruise or cruise accessories (such as shore excursions or the like).
That being said, I guess I should now go on to mention that the trip I’ve booked for Daniel and myself starting in late August (for which the down payment and the final installment are due on Wednesday – which leaves me wondering why they bother to differentiate between the two?) is a cruise, which I had hoped to apply to the card. The only problem is that its credit limit was considerably less than the cost of the cruise; I’d never bothered to raise it to a level where I could make more substantial purchases with it. However, given my credit history and income stream, this proved not to be a major hurdle. Asking for an increase in my limit was a relatively simple matter, and as of today, I could check in with my travel agent (who’s returned from a cruise herself as of yesterday, in fact) and get everything paid and sorted away.
At least I could have if it weren’t for a whole other development. Shortly after getting the credit limit squared away, I got an email from the bank that issued my card, which I promptly opened, assuming it was a boilerplate confirmation email, likely complete with congratulations and recommendations of what to use that new limit on.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was a note informing me of several purchases made on the card that the bank was questioning, as they seemed to be out of character for me. And they were right to do so, as I hadn’t made the purchases they were citing. However, just in case this was a phishing expedition, I didn’t click the link in the email. Instead, I went to my other web browser and connected with the bank directly from there. But regardless, the information was genuine; they were showing a series of attempted transactions that required my attention. Did I have anything to do with these purchases? they asked me a second time.
I responded in the negative, along with a recollection of what I thought might have happened to the card. Evidently, whoever picked it up decided to give it a try after all, after these several weeks – which also confirmed that I hadn’t misplaced it somewhere in the car or something like that. They would have to cancel my card, and issue a new one.
Under most circumstances, this would be no big deal. I don’t use my plastic for all that much, to be honest – although, unlike your folks, who had literally no credit history, despite their financial situation, I make sure to use them regularly for certain things, as long as they’re completely paid off every month – and what I do use them for, apart from the warehouse club, can be paid by any of my cards.
But this particular situation was different; I’d need to present my card to my travel agent by tomorrow, in order to get it taken care of before the deadline. Which is difficult when I don’t have a card to present; I don’t even know the number of the new card (apart from the last four digits, which showed up when I logged out and back into my account with the issuing bank). So I decided to call the bank, and see if they could get me that information to me, either by email or by phone – a faint hope, to be sure, but I’m confident that I’m not the first person to need to be able to use a specific card as quickly as this.
Of course, the automated phone tree needed me to verify myself in order to offer such assistance, including my birth date and last digits of my social security number. All well and good, but then it requested me to provide the security code on the back of the credit card. You can see where this is going; I’m trying to get information about the numbers on this new replacement card, but in order to do so, I need to provide numbers that can only be found on the card that not only do I not have, but likely hasn’t even been printed up yet. It’s your garden variety Catch-22, but just because it’s bog-standard doesn’t make it any less infuriating.
Fortunately, it was at this point that it offered me the option to connect with a live person – and it didn’t take but a couple of minutes to do so. I explained the situation, and the fellow on the other end informed me that he would expedite the delivery of the card so that it should arrive tomorrow. He told me that, had I contacted them in the morning, he could have assured me of delivery today, but since I didn’t get the notice about the fraudulent purchase attempts under the afternoon, it couldn’t be helped. He was also apologetic about not knowing exactly when the card would arrive, but since Kris will be over to clean the house, I’ll be home whenever it shows up. It’s all good.
Incidentally, he initially told me that he would be sending over two replacement cards; one for me, of course, but also one for you. It hadn’t occurred to me that you were still on the account as a cardmember, but after explaining the situation (and after he apologized profusely – again – for having brought up the subject), you’ve finally been stricken from the record. I feel bad for him, thinking that this is a painful subject for me; granted, it is, but having come to terms with it, it’s actually just nice that he’s being so considerate about it. That, and it’s just as well not to have a second card floating about that someone might just start this whole situation all over again.
So we’ll see if I can get the trip paid for on the new RCL card – and if doing so grants me any additional benefits for the trip. Otherwise, I may just have to use one of my other cards, that just give me cash back instead. Either way, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m obviously going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 