Honestly, if you do a VbV transaction, that right there should be some indication of legitimacy of the transaction, and in theory it should save you a shitload of hassle if you have a shopping spree day.  Except that it seems that it doesn’t.

I had two trips to book today through Travelocity.com.  First was to Phoenix to do a “holy crap, we didn’t think her grandchildren would show up again until December!” visit to have eyes on the care centre, and the second to Las Vegas.  Phoenix went through (with VbV) with no issues.  Vegas?  (Again w/VbV) Not so much -  but with a caveat that some debit cards had a daily spending limit and it could be as simple and innocent as that.  It wasn’t until I tried to hit the ATM this evening that I discovered that my card was full on shut down.

I worked fraud prevention at a bank.  I get it.  However, when you or your automated systsem suspects fraud, the first thing that should happen is a call to the cardholder to verify charges – NOT simply shutting down the card with no notice or verification.

So, I’ve got a busted card and a system that thinks I’m making fraudulent charges, DESPITE using their enhanced security systsem.

WTF.

Yeah, I’ll be talking to PFCU tomorrow and I will spare the CSR that answers the call my annoyances and will ask to be transferred directly to fraud prevention – hopefully I’ll be slightly less peeved and won’t unleash the level of annoyance that I’m feeling right now.

I’ll fully admit, after dealing with that fairly awful woman last year, I was loaded for bear going in there today.  Told my grandmother before we went in to get her game face on because we were NOT going to leave without getting what we needed and that she should feel free to whack someone with her cane if necessary.  (That got her good and pumped up, and I’m still surprised she didn’t punch me in the face just to show she was ready to take on any branch employee.)

Went in, told them what we needed, filled out one more form and that was that.  CSR Dan was nice, helpful, polite, awesome, and pretty much a complete departure in attitude from the last person I dealt with at this branch.  As it turns out, Grandma did not have to physically be there, which is what I had suspected – seriously, what if she’d done the PoA years ago and broke a hip?  Not like I could drag her into the branch to enact it…

By the time we were done, my hands were pretty much shaking from relief.  I cannot tell you how much better I feel knowing that as things get worse for her (and unfortunately, they will), we can pick up the ball and run with it with a bare minimum of hassle.

It doesn’t seem like a lot in the big scheme of things, but just being able to take care of these two little accounts for her is going to make EVERYONE’S life so much easier.

(Oh, and Dan, if you’re reading this because you were wondering WTF kind of domain my email address comes from – I saw what you did there with the MM account.  I understand completely – and thanks again.)

Today I have been reassuring her that yes, someone WILL contact us should she die, and it’s not like she’ll be sitting dead on the couch for a week before someone discovers it (she has someone pop in multiple times a week) and even if that happened (which it won’t) the cat wouldn’t starve because it would eat her.  (She actually thought the cat comment was funny.  I wasn’t exactly joking.  The cat is not dumb.)  She has an odd obsession with the administrative details of death.  Actual death doesn’t bother her a bit, but the paperwork aspect puts her around the bend.  Granted, she is 87, so I understand that death is more of an issue now, but I can’t quite convince her that once she dies, none of this will be her problem anyway, so why worry?

So, the BP has been a bit on the high side so far today.  Then I had to go deal with Wachovia Bank – I will be lucky if I don’t stroke out before the night is over.

Last year when I was in Phoenix, I made the suggestion of being a signer on her accounts, as the finances were already frustrating her (legal blindness will do that) and might as well do it then rather than wait.  Figured that way whenever I needed to do something for her, I could.  (And I have, so it was a good idea.)  Now, her accounts are in a trust – of which SHE is the trustee – a POS document that seems to have only caused more grief than it has solved in my opinion, but everyone assures me, “Oh, it’s GREAT!”  I remain unconvinced.

Two of these accounts are held with Wells Fargo.  (Thankfully they are her main day-to-day accounts.)  We walked in, my grandmother said, “I want to make her a signer on my accounts.”  They said, “Here’s a pen.”  That was that.  I think the most challenging part was finding a Sharpie to make the signature line extra dark so she could see it.

For the other two accounts, we headed over to Wachovia, who held true to their former identity of First Union, aka, the FU bank.  As it is, they don’t like her that much because she is a high maintenance pain in the ass who doesn’t make them any money.  (True.)  They don’t much like me because I’ve not stuffed her in a nursing home.  While there are days I’d love to do that (at least she’d know someone will call me if she dies) simply being a high maintenance pain in the ass isn’t grounds for checking her into a home.  (Were that the case, most of my clients I had on help desk would have been committed.)  And frankly, if you’re working at a bank in Sun City, Arizona (one of God’s Waiting Rooms, thank you Del Webb) you simply have to know that there is going to be a percentage of your customers that are cranky elderly people who will do their best to drive you insane.

Well, no can do on being a signer, even with the trustee right in front of them.  Must have a Power of Attorney “from the trust”.  My grandmother had a meltdown/hissy fit about having to “get an expensive lawyer” and not much else could be done except hustle her out of there before she started using her cane as a weapon.  (I regret ever telling her to use the cane as a weapon if anyone gave her a hard time – there will come a day where she knocks me unconscious with it.)

After one midnight call too many from her of “I can’t read the Wachovia checkbook and I can’t tell if it’s been balanced” I broached the idea of going with the PoA (expensive lawyer be damned) so I could just take it over, get the mailing address changed, take the checkbooks (1 interest transaction per month – they cause SO much more grief than her day to day checkbook) and she doesn’t have to deal with it ever again.  And I don’t get any calls at midnight when she’s trying in vain to read her own handwriting in the check register.  I may have said something about having a lawyer friend that owed me a favor so it wouldn’t cost anything.  (In her world anything that costs anything is BAD.  I felt it was more important to get the docs done than to have her complaining about the cost and it never happening.)  But, she agreed that it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

Cue the angels singing.

So, I get the PoA’s drawn up.  One for her as an individual (good for me for getting info on bills and whatnot – I’ve already checked with her various vendors and they all said, “Yep, that will be fine!”) and one “from the trust” which she will sign as trustee.

I am making a special trip to Phoenix to make this happen, for two reasons:  First, I don’t know enough people there to make this easily happen remotely.  Second, when you’re asking someone to essentially give you the ability to loot all their assets, it’s really best done in person.  Because of this, and the issues we’ve had with good ol’ Wachovia, I took the blanks to the local WB branch to make sure they would be honored when signed – no sense in traveling 2000 miles for nothing.  It seemed like a very good idea.  A smart idea.  A proactive idea.

I obviously forgot I was dealing with Wachovia.  Now first, let me say that the lady that I talked to at my local branch about it was VERY nice and was as helpful as she could be considering that Wachovia apparently doesn’t think being proactive is a good idea.  I asked that they look at the PoA and the way her accounts were titled so I would know that they worked, because if I made a special trip to PHX to have these signed and then discovered that they wouldn’t honor it, I would be curled up in the fetal position in the lobby crying.  (Yes, I used those words.  It got the point across.  The gentleman behind me was laughing a lot – he had obviously gone through this song and dance with an elderly relative at some point.  Or, I am simply hilarious.)

Well, first, one of the accounts isn’t even in the trust!  Nope, the money market account they convinced her to open last year is in her plain-jane name only. (Because yes, this woman needed yet another check register to keep track of – whoever sold her on that account owes me several rounds at the local bar and an opportunity to smack them around.)

For the other account, she couldn’t tell me for sure if the PoA would be honored or not.  The legal department doesn’t review unsigned documents.  Nor will they speak directly with customers.  (This mystifies me, I would think it would be in their interest to be able to tell someone that a particular document WON’T be sufficient BEFORE someone goes to the trouble of getting it signed, notarized and witnessed.  The document is going go have to be reviewed one way or another as it is.)  She *thinks* it will work, but we will have to make an in-person trip to her branch after it’s signed to enact it, and then I guess we’ll find out one way or another.  (Cue grandma braining someone with a cane if it doesn’t.)

However – she did say that we could just make it a “non-trust” account and I could immediately be made a signer on it should the PoA not be sufficient.  WTF?  SERIOUSLY???  This option couldn’t be brought forward when we were there last year?  There were a few moments before my grandmother freaked out where they could have said, “Well, here’s another option…”

So, great, I get to go to PHX, AND make a trip to the bank I hate to boot, AND not throw a stapler at anyone while there while ALSO keeping my grandmother from assaulting anyone.  Which also begs the question – had my grandmother done the PoA’s 5 years ago and said, “Just put them away for when all hell breaks loose” and she broke a hip and I had to invoke it – would Wachovia turn me away because I couldn’t present my grandmother at the branch?  Would I have to get her on videoconference from the hospital?  Isn’t the whole point of a Power of Attorney that you DON’T have to have the principal front and center with you giving you permission to do what needs to be done?  Perhaps I missed that day in my business law class.

I have a very bad feeling my return flight will have to be rescheduled as I either have documents re-written or I’m bailing my grandmother out of jail for assault with a mobility aid.

I had a text message on my phone from “department@visacards.com” with the message: Important VISA CARD notice:id-FF721 SUSPICIOUS AUTHORIZATION. TOLL FREE 8882275019.

Well, how nice of them to leave me a phone number! Except that isn’t the phone number of either of my Visa card issuers, but that’s just a minor detail.

I called Chase anyway (on their actual business number) to see if anyone else had gotten this message. The rep said he’d just gotten off the phone with another customer who’d also gotten the same message, and it definitely wasn’t from them. I also called PFCU to let them know what was going on (I have a Visa debit card through them) and they said it definitely wasn’t them, either, as they don’t use text messages.

The beauty of this scam is that they’re taking advantage of the fact that many card issuers have all sorts of mobile options, so you might not think it unusual to get a text message about your credit card, and the fact that it seems that no two issuers have the same procedures when it comes to fraud detection and notification.

But as I told a friend this afternoon after the market closed – “It’s nice to be a witness to history where you’re not saying, “Oh crap.” at the end of the day.

Went through 1987 and it’s redux this year.  Can’t say I thought I’d see it twice in a lifetime.

But damn, it was nice to see green again on the charts.

But, I will admit I was very surprised when I heard that various Rep’s said their constituents were overwhelmingly against today’s package being passed.  (Of course, this was after the Republican’s came out and said, “Pelosi hurt our feelings so we changed our votes.  Oh, the maturity!)  But somehow, the S&P 500 dropping 8.78% in a day is OK?

Has it been reported everywhere else in the country as just a mechanism to protect “The Rich” on “Wall Street”?  Cause the current credit and banking liquidity issues that the country is facing really do extend beyond the hedge fund managers and bankers on Wall Street.  Regular non-Wall-Streeters who *haven’t* bought a house they can’t afford, or a car they can’t afford and have saved and invested are having their portfolios hammered.

I really do wonder how this is all being reported outside the DC area, and in non-business-focused news programs.

ETA: After it was all said and done, I went to see how my rep voted.  Both my current rep and the one from my last district, both Republicans, voted for it.

Looks like Wachovia Bank is next on the chopping block.  Of course, my grandmother has 2 accounts there…

Given that her FAVORITE activity is to actively seek out things to worry about and to then expect me to have all the answers, this should be fun.

Hopefully a few things will happen:

1.  She’s not paying any attention to the news.

2.  That it is just a matter of the name changing on the bank – trust me, having her deposits liquidated and sent to her will cause more heartburn than I even care to imagine.

It would be more comforting if the members understood what a reverse auction was.

However, if you are like me and actively follow the stock market, you may agree that today is a really crappy day to have the cable go out and not be able to get your CNBC fix.  (But Cox Communications has assured me that “technicians are in the area and they’re working on the problem!”)

Still picking through multiple news pages to get the details of what the government has in mind for all this.  Fun!

I’m going to be optimistic – I will call on Monday and I think this can be cleared up with a simple phone call.

We shall see.

ETA:  And I even have a copy of the 1041.  Go me.