Every so often my bank cancels my existing credit card and issues a new one. This is such a big hassle. First of all I have no idea when I'm supposed to receive the new card and when I'm supposed to stop using the current one. Every time I go to make a payment there's the
fear that the current card could be rejected.
Then I have to remember to change the card number with all the vendors who have it on file. If I miss one, I could risk losing a service. Finally the number change completely messes up my memory. Just as I begin to remember a card number, I have to drop it from memory
in favor of another one. And the cycle keeps repeating itself.
This card replacement merry-go-round is done to ostensibly protect me against the bad guys who may have somehow gained access to my account. At least that's what I thought. The truth however is that this practice is nothing but a marketing ploy and with the Credit Card Act going into effect soon, limiting potential gains for the card companies, we may see more of this happening.
The banks have done their homework and obviously this ploy produces great returns which is why they keep re-issuing cards. More than likely no account information has been leaked and there are no risks, but issuing a new card forces the customer to call and activate the account. What better way to peddle their junk services on a mandatory inbound call.
There are high pressure pitches on balance transfers, payment protection plans, and credit monitoring programs among many others and the customer is forced to listen to them all before the rep on the phone declares the account activated. All these services are useless waste of money designed to make the card companies richer and us poorer.
So the next time you call to activate your account, tell the rep that you're not interested in any of their junk services. If they must put us through the credit card recycling game, they should just activate the damn cards and let us be. We'll call them if we have money to throw away, promise.
Give a few Sats