don't forget to ask permission...

[glowroper.livejournal.com]

...to spend your own money, if you bank at Wainwright and use an ATM card to access your hoard. (Disclaimer: I otherwise love Wainwright Bank, as they are not only progressive in policy, but in action.)

My partner and I were in yesterday, because they now need to be alerted IN WRITING that you wish to leave town and use your ATM/debit card. Otherwise they will interpret purchases as attempts at fraud, and deny the transaction. (Yes, this has happened to me. Most embarrassing.)

They say this is to prevent possible theft; I say it is a theft of my privacy. They will be getting a[nother] nasty note from me when I return from the trip I leave on (in about half an hour). I say "another" because the written notification I gave them was so...vivid...that the Davis Square customer service person was going to fax it over to the main office, probably so they could use advanced graphological analysis to see how infuriated I am.

If I wanted to inform the authorities of my whereabouts, and ask permission to spend my own money, I would face the satellite cameras and vote Republican.

Comments

A response from Irene Berry of Wainwright Bank

[ron_newman]

I e-mailed a few people at Wainwright Bank, pointing them at this and several other LiveJournal discussions that mentioned the bank. Irene Berry, assistant vice president for "electronic delivery", sent me this reply and told me I could post it here:

The automated fraud system scores transactions and based on that
algorithm, assesses the risk rating.

So, if you normally only use your card in MA, any international
transaction will prompt a high fraud risk score. A high fraud score will
cause the system to flag the card and require an analyst to contact the
customer to confirm the transactions. The phone call confirmation makes
for a difficult situation when the customer is out of the country and
can't be reached. If they can't reach the customer, the card is
disabled.

We ask customers to let us know when they will be traveling abroad to
avoid any interruption of service. If we make a note on the account, the
fraud analyst will not require a phone call to confirm that the customer
is in fact using their card. We are trying to avoid a bad situation by
asking that customers notify us when they travel.

This scenario was in fact accurately assessed by one of the discussion
participants on the LiveJournal.

I then asked her: "Is this only for overseas travel (outside the US and Canada)?"
and she replied:

The main focus is travel outside the US since it is most likely that the
fraud system will tag those transactions and it would be most difficult
to confirm the transactions with the customer out of the country.
Theoretically any purchases outside of your normal spending pattern
would increase the fraud score. Also, there are certain merchant
categories that increase the score as well. It is not uncommon for
customers who are not traveling to receive a call to confirm their
transactions because they are outside their normal spending pattern. But
we only ask that customers notify us when they will be abroad.

I am always available to any customer with questions. Feel free to take
this knowledge and inform those who may ask.

Re: A response from Irene Berry of Wainwright Bank

[glowroper.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. I will follow up with her. I was told that I have had to do this for several different states, after having a problem with a hotel in Philly - and the customer service woman at the Davis Square branch confirmed this, both for a trip to Cleveland and my current trip to Chicago.

My patterns ~are~ domestic hotel travel. So they can say that their "main focus" is overseas - but when I and my partner receive different information in person from the Wainwright representatives, they are having a problem.

One which will not go away with just a nice email from Ms. Berry.