Frustration with wanting to use my credit card on any purchase I choose

Why not just take out a simple ready reserve line of credit at your
local bank that you have a checking account with? The rate usually
runs about 3% above the prime, or 8% roundabout, not to excede 18%.
Stay away from credit card snakes, they will bite, trust me. Nothing
spends better than cash. You don't need anyone's permission and they
don't need to know your business.

the "vote with your feet" option is the best in my opinion

I wanted to take out a 5 thousand cash to put a down payment on a car
back in 1999, and the bank gave me the third degree of what I was
purchasing with the money, if I had parental permission(I was 20 but
looked younger to them I guess). And one time me an my brother were
going halfsies on a game console and the bank freaked when we tried to
use his debit card.

I had to call Target in 2002 when I bought a game system using my
Target card because it was over a year since I made a purchase on the
card.

This is the very reason that I always call and notify my banks that I
will be traveling or making a very large purchase prior to doing it,
that way, they already know its me that is buying and they wont freak
out.

Same thing happend to me a few years back at WalMart, I was buying a
$1200 big screen TV for my husband for Christmas and my card issurer
declined the purchance even though I had more then enough funds to
cover it, plus 2 or 3 more just like it! I called them (BOfA) and
they explained why they declined it, but after a few minutes they went
ahead and auth'd it. I was told then to try to always call ahead and
alert them to any large purchases, thats why I do it now.

Thank you to all who have replied. I am pleased to see that you feel
I did not do anything wrong and I was correct in cancelling my card.
Their excuse was not valid in my opinion. Verifying the security
questions, plus having the cashier verify I had valid identification
should have been enough to clear my purchase. I am all for them
having security measures to protect me from identity theft, but these
are there to protect my account and considering I set up the questions
I figured my answering them would allow my purchase. Their loss,
their apology letter seemed like a nice little form letter in our
opinion, but did nothing to lift my anger. I would assume they would
want to keep my business, but perhaps they are only interested in
those who default on their payments so they can increas their interest
rates and make more money. When I mentioned this in my phone call the
second day they seemed uninterested in my business. Farewell Chase!

but what's the point of all the "security" measures if they don't
ultimately verify that you are who you say you are?

So sad that it's come to this.

I agree, this was unreasonable. My husband had his credit card
declined once at a gas station when we were driving cross country. We
were moving and had been through a few tanks of gas and a couple
different states that day. I was actually glad they declined the card
and were looking out for us. Of course the issue was resolved right
away when we called and explained our situation and answered all of
the necessary questions.

I feel this may be Chase's way of getting out of having this large
purchase put on their card. CC companies seem determined these days
to make sure they aren't stuck with large tabs if someone defaults on
the payments.

I was also wondering, if once they confirmed and verified that you
were the cardholder, Chase would have balked if you were on a "Disney
Vacation" and wanted to upgrade your accomodations, or charge an
outrageous amount on other items.

And, I can definately understand security protocol with credit cards
but once its been verified to the card company's satisfaction that you
are actually the card holder then they should remove the "alert/alarm"
for that purchase.

You made the right move by cancelling the card. Maybe Chase will look
at this more closely if more people did cancel their cards because of
this issue.

I think Chase was wrong to decline your transaction after having you
answer the security questions. I think they owe you a better
explanation than what you were given. I have also had a problem in the
past with a transaction being declined. Now, I have it set up so that
if there are any questions regarding a transaction on any of our
credit cards, the customer service people will call our cell phones.
They have had to do this only once since we set it up but they did
approve the transaction because they were able to talk to us and
verify the transaction. Chase should have done that for you since they
spoke to you.

to your question.

This sounds very odd - once you verified your identity, in my opinion
you should have been able to use the card.

I'm wondering if there is some other issue, such as credit limit,
utilization, etc that they are not telling you about. I don't know
why they wouldn't tell you the truth.

I love Chase, and have had nothing but good experienced using my
cards. I'm sorry to hear this happened to you; I would be upset also.

Why would purchasing a washer and dryer not be an uncharacteristic
purchase? Do they expect you to purchase them all the time? I think
your complaint is very valid. Once you verified that you were the one
using the card, they should have allowed the purchase.

I agree. If you answered the security questions accurately, then they
should have allowed the purchase.

This was for your protection. There is so much identity theft now.
Imagine the letter that you would have written and the ire that you
would have felt if they had allowed this and it was indeed a form of
identity theft...you would be very upset and saying that the credit
card company should have questioned a large purchase that was made out
of state. Just saying.

I do however think that once you called them and they were able to do
everything in their power to verify that you were indeed the card
holder then they should have authorized the purchase with a notation
on your file stating such in case the charge got challenged down the
road. Sometimes I think this is a no win situation for everyone
involved. Identity theft is rampant, card holders are trying to
protect not only you but themselves as well.