Credit Card Payback (Literally)
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FacebookI just ran across an amusing article about how Canadian retiree Don Rogers expressed his displeasure with his bank when they outsourced their credit card processing to the United States. The main concern here was privacy. After all, according to Rogers, “once your personal data enters the United States, it becomes subject to American law.” Thus, “the Patriot Act could kick in and your information could be forcibly turned over to the American government.” When Rogers’ complaints were met with inaction, he took matters into his own hands. So how did he get their attention? He simply paid off his outstanding balance of $230… In 985 tiny installments of a few cents each! This resulted in a 35 page statement that wound up being nearly half an inch thick. This stunt caused a huge headache for the bank’s accounting department, and ultimately got the attention of the bank president. While it remains to be seen whether or not they’ll end up changing their policy, the lesson here (according to Rogers) is that “retired folks are dangerous. We have time on our hands.”
Published on December 14th, 2005 - 12 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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That’s pretty funny…and so true about the time thing. I couldn’t see someone in the throws of daily life (job, kids, etc.) taking the time to do that. Did it specify if he did it electronically or by check. I would assume his bank wouldn’t have been happy with 985 checks written in a short period of time!
Comment by Financial Fruition — Dec 14th 2005 @ 9:54 amHe did it all online. It probably would have been even more effective if he had done it by check, but that would be pretty costly (and time consuming, even for a retiree) on his end.
Ha ha ha! I’ll have to remember that; I work for a check printing company, so I can get checks at cost. If you use something like Microsoft Money to print them then it wouldn’t be too much longer to enter the checks than it would be to do it online. You would still have to sign them all, and mail them in, but you could probably mail more than one check at a time.
Comment by Blaine Moore — Dec 14th 2005 @ 10:00 amThat’s priceless! Kudos to Don Rogers.
Comment by Seattle — Dec 14th 2005 @ 5:05 pmThe guy is an ass!
Comment by Joe Wenzel — Dec 15th 2005 @ 12:47 pmTell me about it. I spent an hour on the phone today with an aged volunteer who kept coming up with more and more exciting ideas–that would take a ton of my time, other staff time, and produce something that might not be all that useful.
And yet, this woman is very talented, sharp as a tack, and is a retired librarian. The perfect volunteer for an archives.
When I’m retired, I hope I have lots of also-retired friends to jabber to.
Comment by Claire — Dec 20th 2005 @ 6:04 pmAnd I tell you one more interesting thing that never throw out your ATM slips because I’ve seen hackers hacking bank accounts by picking up the slips and playing tricks on them. I’ve been a victime too.
Comment by Laura — Mar 10th 2006 @ 4:10 pmI’ve had to deal with credit card fraud in the past. It’s a big hassle to go through.
Comment by Bill Consolidation — Dec 5th 2006 @ 9:59 amit’s the american way!!
Comment by lisa smith — Dec 19th 2006 @ 6:08 amRE ATM slips and other receipts. the cops at my door (broke the door – another story I was asleep worked 10P-6A) came to talk about a gas drive off. U guess it no receipt – but the camera has me pumping gas. Never, never, never, drive away without a recipt. Mine was out of paper, so I left.
Comment by Never again — Dec 21st 2006 @ 1:03 pmI think the guy had a right to express his displeasure and did it in a creative way. Kudos to him.
Comment by Bill — May 16th 2007 @ 12:23 pm