Comments on: 2,361.52 reasons to be pissed.

By: B.

B. — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:11:15 +0000

Wow, citibank sounds like the way to go… once we’ve got this mess cleared up I might have to switch to them.

By: G in Berlin

G in Berlin — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:25:03 +0000

We also hate the banking system here in DE for many reasons. But at least at citibank we can bank online in English, cancel cards and call 24 hrs a day to deny charges done to our account. If you have any direct deposit here in Germany the account will be free, you can use the credit card at any atm, and you get an EC card and the credit card gets the 40E charge refunded after you bcharge approx 2500 for the year.I hope this gets cleared up quickly and I do think you should think of changing banks!

By: B.

B. — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:02:24 +0000

Thanks guys. I feel sure we’ll get the €€ back, it’s just a matter of how stressful it’ll be in the meantime. Ugh.

By: essie

essie — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:36:02 +0000

B!
This is terrible!! I’m with Dixie Peach-get your money the heck out of Deutsche Bank. I’d say call the newspaper and get them involved, but don’t know if Germans use their media outlets the way Americans do when something smells like a rat!
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome…good luck!

By: Dixie

Dixie — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:55:20 +0000

I had the same thing happen to me this weekend but you got it much, much, much worse!! You can read my tale here : http://dixiepeach.blogspot.com/2008/02/hyphenated-theft.html
And you’ll see that I had a MUCH different outcome. We bank with Sparkasse and our personal banker (and I’ll admit that we likely have a personal banker because we have a bunch of investments with them plus my husband and his family have had an account with them for eons - I don’t know if everyone gets a personal banker) called us to check about an 85 cent charge that looked weird! 85 cents! Sparkasse also uses a company called PlusCard to oversee these accounts for fraud. They’re the ones who first called our banker and notified him plus they wrote us a letter to tell us about the online casino charges. They were friendly, professional and volunteered to cancel our MasterCard and have a new one reissued. And they denied the charges. We were given first class treatment all the way.

I’d get my money out of Deutsche Bank so fast it would make their heads spin. How dare they treat you like that! And not cancel your card? There’s no excuse for that!!

Dixie’s last blog post..Hyphenated Theft

By: christina

christina — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:35:47 +0000

Oh geez! Did you read Dixie Peach’s post about this very same thing? She’s in Germany and just got news of stuff being charged to her card in the U.S. I wonder if it’s the same credit card you guys have?

christina’s last blog post..attention carnivorous discount shoppers!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:20:03 +0000

Oh B, that totally sucks! I’m being super careful while I’m away, but still, that freaks me right out! There’s probably no chance in catching the cock sucker who did this, but if they did catch them, they should give them to you personally to punish! Good luck resolving it anyway!

By: remus

remus — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:12:56 +0000

Sounds like someone in Vienna is running a scam.

I hope you are able to head of the bank autopay, but being branded with the MC logo should limit you liability against fraud.

The merchants and MC will have to sort it out amongst themselves.

Good luck !

By: rositta

rositta — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:42:10 +0000

Wow, that sucks…It’s pretty easy to cancel a card this side of the Atlantic, one phone call will do it. Sometimes they even cancel it if you don’t phone which kind of sucks when your abroad though. You will get your money back if they take it out of your account, that’s a given, don’t worry…ciao

rositta’s last blog post..Blogging Lite

By: ian in hamburg

ian in hamburg — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:46:13 +0000

Oh, B - what a horror story! I always thought that if you could prove fraud on your card, your bank is on the hook for the dough, not you. Good luck.

I have a Lufthansa Mastercard Miles & More Gold card - business plan. I pay 95 a year - last time I checked - and I only got it because of this deal: they pay for the insurance on car rentals. If you book a rental car through this card, you only have to get the basic insurance. The card insures you for damage, theft etc with - I think - a 300 euro deductable. Saves way more than 95 euros on just one one-week rental per year.

ian in hamburg’s last blog post..Metaphorically speaking, memes are like, whatever