Here There and Everywhere

Expat wanderer

Credit Card MixUp

They must have thought we were stark raving out of our minds. In the middle of a crowded dinner-time restaurant, the three of us are out of control. Normally bordering on dignified, we are whooping with laughter, tears are streaming down our faces and we are laughing out loud, totally out of control.

The waitress brought the bill for my Mom, who was treating, but when she brought it back for my Mom’s signature, my Mom said “this isn’t my credit card!” She looked at it closely . . . it was my sister’s credit card.

“How did I give her your credit card?” she asked my sister, who looked baffled.

“I can’t imagine!” she responded. Mom had made it clear that this evening was HER treat, and we hadn’t even reached for our wallets this time.

This was our third dinner together in ten days. We have switched off paying, and we figure that the switch must have happened either a week ago, or five days ago. But . . . and this is the truly horrifying part – both have been charging on the switched cards! As the total implications dawned on us, we were horrified – and our reaction was this hysterical laughter as they tried to figure out what they had charged on each other’s card.

The horror is this – neither of them had noticed they were not using their own card. And no one, at any store, noticed that the signature on the charge slip DID NOT MATCH the name on the charge card. My mother charged several times, my sister charged a few things, but no one ever questioned the fact they were using someone else’s card.

This is horrifying. it is only hysterically funny because it was my mother and sister, and they had to work out who owes what to whom – and the total lack of privacy as two grown women have to tell each other what they have charged. That is laughable. But we are still totally appalled that it could happen, and that it was never caught nor challenged. Amazing.

August 12, 2007 - Posted by | Bureaucracy, Customer Service, Eating Out, Family Issues, Financial Issues, Privacy, Relationships

7 Comments »

  1. I remember reading once a guy’s story of how he used to go around signing his name with a dot or an X etc and no1 said anything.

    Thing is, is wasn’t even in Kuwait.

    MiYaFuSHi's avatar Comment by MiYaFuSHi | August 12, 2007 | Reply

  2. No! Miya, with just a dot? an X? Holy smokes!

    My Mom and my sister live in Seattle. They have been charging all over town and no-one noticed! Kinda scary, isn’t it? You can imagine the phone calls back and forth as they are trying to straighten out who charged what and where? We are still laughing.

    And it’s nice to see you again. 🙂

    intlxpatr's avatar Comment by intlxpatr | August 12, 2007 | Reply

  3. loooooooooooool 😀 that’s hilarious!!

    cixousianpanic's avatar Comment by cixousianpanic | August 12, 2007 | Reply

  4. so, so, so funny! I am laughing hysterically, too – just at the thought of the three of you!

    I have a couple of friends who sign their names in Arabic on their credit cards. As long as the name has no dotted letters, other than the “noun”, it looks little different from an English-language scribble.

    adiamondinsunlight's avatar Comment by adiamondinsunlight | August 12, 2007 | Reply

  5. Hey, Cixousianpanic, I am happy to see you here! Hope you are having a great summer.

    You would have loved it, Little Diamond. You would have been gasping for air, from laughing too hard.

    *wondering what would happen if I signed my name in Arabic?*

    intlxpatr's avatar Comment by intlxpatr | August 13, 2007 | Reply

  6. I still think she swiped my card on purpose….LOOOOL! The funniest part is that the only thing I charged on her card was the one dinner when I “treated” – guess it was more of a trick than a treat for Mom!
    I used to write “See ID” on the back of my card. During the years I did that, twice I was told “that doesn’t match the name on the front”….now THAT’s horrifying. I should learn to write my name in Arabic, just for the fun of it. No, wait – GREEK!

    SparkleBella's avatar Comment by sparkleplenty | August 14, 2007 | Reply

  7. *Dying laughing!

    So Sparkle, when you treated us to dinner, you did it on Mom’s card? ? ? Oh, I feel another spell of helpless laughter coming on. Oh! Oh! Oh!

    intlxpatr's avatar Comment by intlxpatr | August 14, 2007 | Reply


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