My worst nightmare

There are some embarrassing situations that we all have to go through, tripping in the middle of the street, stalling the car in front on a load of people for example. However, the most embarrassing of all is when you get to the till to pay for something and them telling you your card is declined.

Right so just picture the scene here. I’m stood in Sainsburys on a Saturday morning, it is heaving with all the mums and screaming toddlers. I’ve been waiting to pay for a good 10 minutes and I really want to get home. I’ve managed to wrestle all the food into bags and somehow get all the bags into the trolley neatly.

I put my card in the card reader and type my pin number in. Wait a few seconds… Nothing…. I know there’s something wrong because the cashier frowns ‘It’s been declined’ he tells me slightly sheepishly I swear in my head but then remember that I do have some money; I must have typed my number wrong I tell him. He lets me try again.

Declined.

Now I’m not one to have mental breakdowns in supermarkets but I had to try really quite hard to hold it together here because I KNEW I had enough money on that card.

Thankfully the supervisor that came to help was understanding and let me ring the bank. After getting through several security questions the girl on the other end of the phone tells me that the account is empty. EMPTY. Holy cow have I started shopping online in my sleep? The thing is I know as soon as she tells me the accounts empty what is actually wrong

I borrow enough money to pay for the shopping and trudge home slightly worried about what I’ll find when I log onto my online banking. I don’t even put the shopping away I just dump it on the floor and get onto the computer as soon as I can.

And there it is, plain as day. Money going out of my account, that I haven’t spent. I print out a six-page statement and start going through it with a pen. Now I’m one of those annoying people who keeps all of their receipts until the bank statement comes every month so me, the six page statement and the receipts settle down on the floor and start to piece together what’s going on.

It had started about three weeks earlier. Just £10 on phone credit. 02 phone credit (I’m faithful to Vodaphone), but then it increases. Over £70 on a train ticket, £100 on a phone from Carphone Warehouse. The list really does go on.

I’m silently seething here, how dare someone use my card details? I ring the bank and cancel the card.

Haha, fine that’ll show them.

The following Tuesday, I’m having to live off cash which is something I’ve kind of forgotten how to do. I check my online bank again and see that nearly £200 more has gone out of my account. Oh Crap. I ring the bank; they have no record of the phone call on Saturday. My card has not been cancelled and I am now over £500 out of pocket. I now know what it is to want to kill the person who sits in the call centre all day. I know it isn’t their fault but they are the nearest I can get to the company at the minute so I give the poor girl an earful for a few minutes, she’s obviously seen it all before and doesn’t bat an eyelid.

By the time I’ve finished on the phone it’s quite late so I go and silently sulk in the bedroom while the boyfriend hides from my foul mood in the living room.

It takes a few days for my new debit card to arrive and along with it comes a doorstop sized booklet of fraud forms for me to fill in. they seem to want to make me feel guilty that someone has stolen my card details. Questions such as; ‘Have you ever used your card in a place where known fraud was taking place’ makes me really mad. I didn’t ask for all this hassle. It takes a good hour to get the paperwork filled in and then wrestle it all back into the envelope.

When I post it though I get this huge sense of relief, I know it wasn’t my fault. I am really careful when I use my card. I never leave it with anyone on anywhere where the details could be picked up off it. This is just one of life’s little annoyances.

I was ridiculously lucky that the people in Sainsburys and the people at the bank were so understanding, otherwise we’d have had no food or rent money for the past few weeks.

I’m still waiting for my money to be recouped back. I hope they catch the person who did it. If they do I’d like to meet them to let them know what they’ve put me through, I’ve lost sleep and worried myself half to death about this.

I know there’s people reading this who’re going to say that I must have left my card somewhere or been careless with it but believe me I really haven’t. The one good thing that’s come out of this though is that when you’re using cash you’re much more aware of what you’re spending. I’ve not bought anything I don’t really need this week, that’s kind of the whole point here. The value of money, you don’t really learn it until you have none.