This post over at Frugal Dad about the fact that credit cards are nothing more than loans reminded me of a certain type of phone call I used to get when I worked in credit card customer service.

The bank I worked at wouldn’t allow online gambling with their credit cards.  This would irritate people to no end.  The customer’s argument was always that we can’t tell them what they can do with their money.  I would have to explain that in fact it was not their money.  It was the bank’s money.  And the bank didn’t want to loan them money so they could gamble.  If they wanted to use their money then they would have to use their debit card.

Weird that no one ever took me up on that offer.

There was another call I got once from a woman who wanted to know why her credit card was declined.  She had a $500 credit limit and a balance of $490.  I explained that she didn’t have enough available credit to make her purchase.  She didn’t understand that because she had just made a $10 payment.   We went back and forth a few times.  Turns out that she thought she got a brand new $500 limit every month as long as she made her minimum payment.  I explained this was not the case, that a $500 limit means she can borrow up to $500 at a time.  Forever.  Not every month.  She said “Well, this isn’t a credit card… it’s a debit card.” and hung up.

Can you imagine if you got a fresh credit limit every month?  Wow.  We think we are in a mess now!

Check out this post here for more customer service adventures.

pic by: The consumerist

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