Checking the Transactions

Last night, I went through my credit card transactions (as I like to do on weekly basis), and noticed that on Oct. 17, I was charged $8 by Delta in Atlanta, Georgia. That was this last Friday, and I was here, in New York, eating a fried chicken sandwich in Brooklyn at the time; the charge for the sandwich appeared next to it.

It was past eight, and Meaghan had just urged me to leave the office to go home, but instead I waited 20 minutes on the phone to talk to a customer service representative.

“How may I help you?” she asked.

“I just looked at the most recent transactions on my card and noticed this charge from Delta in Atlanta, Georgia and I wanted to make sure it was a legitimate charge.”

“Have you flown Delta before?”

“Yes, but not on Oct. 17 — not this month.”

“Not this month.”

“Nope.”

“Well, I can’t tell you if this charge is legitimate or not, you’ll have to call Delta.”

“I see.”

“And if the transaction isn’t yours you can dispute it.”

“So I’ll call Delta, and if the charge isn’t mine, then I’ll call this number again and dispute it?”

“Oh don’t call back. You can dispute the charge online and it’s faster.”

“Okay great. Um, that’s my only question. Thank you.”

“Thanks for using our card, and have a good night.”

Thinking about getting on the phone again to fight for $8 seemed like it wasn’t worth it, but I was more worried by the idea that someone out there had my credit card information and would use it again.

I got on the phone again and called Delta, and after some investigating, we came to the conclusion that the charge was from when I flew on Delta a month and half ago during my Utah trip.

“Sometimes it takes a while for charges to show up,” I was told. Like five weeks.

I wasn’t the only person in the office during this time; our head of technology had been listening in.

“You reminded me that I haven’t looked at my transactions in a long time,” he said. “I’m pulling them up.”

Photo: CWCS Managed Hosting

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