This is a true story that happened to me.

I have a Visa card, like many people do. And from time to time, the Visa company sends in the mail, some promotional cheques. The cheques are tied to your Visa account, and when you use one, it counts like a purchase or a cash advance. They are hoping you will use them to transfer some outstanding balance from another card to your Visa, or perhaps make a large purchase with them. Personally, I never use such cheques, and destroy them as soon as they arrive.

This January I went to England on a vacation. During which time the Visa company sent me some of these pesky promotional cheques.

So the promotional cheques arrived while I was away, and it happened that the mail for the townhome complex was broken into during that time and my mail was stolen. This was neither the fault of Visa or Canada Post. So it seems our theif took the promotional cheques and went shopping with them (I later learned they went to a La-Z-Boy store and spent $4500.00).

The first I hear of it is almost a month later, when I am back home. First I get back some of the stolen mail which was found somewhere nearby. Then I see the statment with the additional expense in recliner furniture.

It takes me a while to work out with the nice customer service person, during which time they cancel my card and issue a replacement card.

I told them that living in a townhome complex, the mailboxes are a regular target, and perhaps they could avoid sending me the promotional cheques. The customer service person said that was beyond their ability to do.

Within another month, the charges were reversed, and I am back to where I should be. During that time, I received about 4 mailings from my Visa company with promotional cheques in. I was getting frustrated at this time. I called up again, and went direct to the "fraud line". I explained the situation, and that I was at risk. They again said they had no way to disable the sending of promotional cheques. I made a point to tell the rep that I was putting them on notice that I will not accept responsibility for the safety of these cheques. I wondered if they could just send the promotional cheques directly to the La-Z-Boy store and save the theif some time and trouble to steal them. :-)

I wonder about the people who work in retail stores that blindly accept such promotional cheques. Usually the merchants are the ones that lose out, since the Visa company will reverse the payment to them. The merchant has then sold a product and has no revenue for it. Most stores I go to don't check my signature or ask for ID when I use a credit card. I compliment staff on the few times they do check. It is actually a good protection for me as well as the merchant.

I just wish you could have a flag set on the account "promotional cheques=NO", and then it would protect me from this. The customer service people are unable to do anything, and I don't know who can make such a change. I guess the promotional cheques are such a source of revenue, that it is worth the risk from Visa's perspective. And if the merchants don't check for ID, they put themselves at risk.

I still get promotional cheques arriving in my mailbox. I go to my mailbox every day, to reduce the chance they can be stolen, and I tear them up. I have given up complaining to my local Visa company. When I finish paying off the balance I will probably cancel my card.

Duncan

P.S. Do you have any stories to share like this?

Comments

Follow-up Written by Duncan on 2007-01-25 16:07:25 I still get promotional cheques in the mail, about once every month. I can't seem to get them to stop without canceling my account. I check the mail every day to reduce the chance of something valuable being stolen, but I am still at risk.

Visa Cheque Fraud Written by 'Guest' on 2007-05-19 22:59:14 I have just found out that someone has also taken out a $4500 cheque on my Visa. I don't know anything more than that because it is the weekend. The bank was only able to tell me they had sent some of these cheques to me in January also. But it was cashed on May 10. I will keep this link so I can mention it to them of this problem. I do not use cheques, I can only recall using three in my life, and only because I had to (the only type of payment that was accepted)  What type of resolution did you come to with the bank for the amount owed?    Rob

The UK situation Written by 'Guest' on 2007-06-23 13:58:43 I get these as well, but so far I have never had any problems with fraud so far.    Any hue in the UK now credit card fraud has been decriminalised because the police will no longer investigate it and tell people to report it to the banks. (See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6224912.stm)    Burglary has also been decriminalised thanks to the Tony Martin case (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2662181.stm)    You are lucky in Canada

Oops Written by 'Guest' on 2007-06-23 14:02:04 Forgot to leave my name there    Graeme Stickings

Another Follow-up Written by Duncan on 2007-07-09 18:29:52 Another 6 months have passed, and I still get these promotional cheques at least twice a month. I phone and complain and they can do nothing to change it. I check my mailbox daily and shred them as fast as they come in.    They slip them in with my monthly bill, plus they mail them to me in separate envelopes. The dumb thing is that the envelope is clearly marked as having these promotional cheques with a low 3.9% interest rate. They could at least be a bit more stealth about it.    Perhaps if enough of us complain they can stop. I assume the money they make on balance transfers exceeds the loss they get when the cheques are stolen.    Sigh!

Update Written by Duncan on 2007-07-16 13:48:42 Someone got my card number and made a card in Korea. They were blocked when they tried to use it, fortunately. I got a call when I returned from a kayaking trip, to tell me my card was canceled and a new one was in the mail.

Visa Cheques. Be aware!!! Written by 'Guest' on 2007-09-18 22:09:43 I used a promotional Visa Cheque to pay off a $9500.00 credit line. The credit line is at 11% the visa cheque promised to be 3.99% for six months. That should reduce my interest cost for six mohts.   did it reduce my interest costs?  I checked my Visa statement. The good people at Visa had charged me with the following:  I was charged $25.00 dishounored payment fee  I was charged $19.90 cash advance interest  and I was charged $52.18 purchase interest.    What is with the dishonoured payment fee? What is with the purchase interest?  Well my Visa payments are set to pay any outstanding charges in full each month. Two weeks after l issued the cheque full payment was due, and Visa went for the total $9500.00. I should have told visa to change my payment options to 'minimum amount" but that had never occurred to me. Since the full amount was not there I was charged with the dishonoured payment fee, and, GET THIS!, the full oustanding balance is no longer at 3.99%. everything is now goint to be treated at full visa rate of 19.50%,

Update Written by duncans on 2007-12-12 14:01:16 The cheques keep coming in, clearly labeled as such. They don't complete all the digits on the cheques, so that you have to manually enter the missing digits from your credit card. The problem is that they still include them with the statement in the same envelope, which contains the card number. The so-called security measure is useless.

Written by 'Guest' on 2008-11-05 05:53:26

Written by 'Guest' on 2008-11-05 05:53:31

Written by 'Guest' on 2008-11-05 05:53:31

Written by 'Guest' on 2008-12-01 20:19:24 This also just happened to me. I wonder why the stores that accept these cheques do not ask for id or proof that they have the card.

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