Hold on Target Credit Card Without Notification

After working in the credit card industry for years, I have had to
explain these transactions quite often. When you have odd activity,
they will put a hold on your card. It will not be taken off until you
call in or we contact you. Depending on the severity of the hold.
You should have just called and questioned why the account was being
held. Quit acting like the store owes you something. They put a hold
on your account in order to cover their rear's and your's too!!

As for if they attempted contact...usually it is done by a automated
system. Which unfortunately..as we all know..electronics are not
perfect. So just get over it!

So they put a hold and continued to keep the hold in place after you
charged and subsequently PAID FOR $800 worth of mdse? What, do they
think someone stole the card and then generously paid for the things
they charged? Wow, that would have been some thief! If only all
thieves behaved so responsibly.

I received a response from Target the same day I sent this letter.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be a pretty standard letter and they
didn't address my main concern which was their communication.


Dear Julie,

I'm sorry for any inconvenience that you've experienced. For security
purposes, we had recently placed a temporary hold on your account.
Since we've verified your recent transactions, your available amount
of $X has been restored.

We want you to know that we re looking after the security of your
account, and we appreciate your patience in this matter.

If you have more questions about your account, please call us at
888-755-5856. Target Account Services representatives are available 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.

Regards,


Lis
Target Financial Services, an affiliate of Target National Bank

While I agree that they could have done more than one alleged phone
call to reach her (in 2 weeks, they shut the card down and can't even
send a letter or something? They can sure send letters out the wazoo
when they aren't getting their money!) but I can kind of see why if
her activity flagged their fraud system, they have to take every
precaution to protect both her and Target's interests.

So have they said that now that you've called that they will remove
the hold or are they still keeping you hostage here?

I had a similar situation with Capitol One in September and also
submitted a letter through PFB with a similar complaint. In my case,
someone attempt to use my card and Capitol One somehow knew it was
fraud and denied the charge. They also canceled my card and neglected
to notify me for 13 days. Ironically, the day after my card was
declined, I received a letter from Capitol One dated 12 days earlier,
saying they had identified fraud on my account and had attempted to
contact me with no luck. Like you, my husbands cell phone number is
listed as our contact number (because we don't have a land line) and
no one from Capitol One ever called. So while I was essentially
"notified" (a day too late as far as I am concerned), there was a
delay which I was not happy about. I agree, follow-up needs to be made
and customers need to be contacted sooner when fraud is suspected.
Also, if anyone here has been the victim of credit card fraud, did the
credit card company give you whatever information they had on the
fraudulent transaction? And did the CC company take any action or was
it up to you? Its been almost 2 1/2 months now and Capitol One is
still "investigating" the fraud and they won't release any information
until their investigation is done. Its frustrating because my husband
is a detective and can't even file a police report at this point
because Capitol One won't tell us anything. If he had the name of the
company involved, he could do his own investigative work and have the
case closed in days.

I think Nate's got a good point that they thought you might have
failed in some way to catch the error. We do get letters every so
often from people who are just noticing that some company has been
billing them for months for something they didn't want. The fact that
you paid the bill in full might not be a sign that the activity isn't
fradulent.

But they should definitely follow up on accounts when they couldn't
reach the account holder on the first try, and they definitely had
plenty of time to do so in your case.

You sound like a great customer from this letter; I hope they
recognize how lucky they are to have you when they consider how to
respond to your complaint.

Here is what I think THEY though happened;

1. Your card is being used in a way which is "suspicious"
*2. They try to contact you, and cannot get through for whatever
reason. (wrong number dialed, wrong number on account by accident,
poor reception when called placed?)
3. Card was shut down
4. Bill was mailed
*5. Bill was paid in full, but you just wrote the check and were too
oblivious to notice you were a fraud victim
6. Decided to shut off card until it can be VERIFIED that you acually
made the suspicious charges.

Obvious this is different from reality, but at least they protected
you and themselves, and there was only a minor incovenience. Be
thankful you were not scammed, and it took a phone call to get your
account running again.

Thank you for writing such a calm and rational letter. It's like
music to my ears.

There is no greater reward than a denied card and having to pay
cash!!!


Good Day