Denied!

Yep, that's what the lady at Lund's said to me last night after she slid my TCF check card through the machine. I said, "What?" And, she said, "Your card has been denied." And, really she didn't have to say it so loudly.

This was puzzling (not to mention embarrassing) to me since I had just checked my balance yesterday afternoon after Terry made a large (the kind that covers the house payment) deposit. Plus, at the time of Terry's deposit there was enough already in the account to cover another house payment.

Terry and I had purchased some Valentine's yesterday and I had used the card a lot, but still, all totaled, I think my purchases were under $200 and that included lunch and a treat at Caribou where we stopped by to see Katie who was working there yesterday.

So, I looked at the lady (as I noticed all the others in line irritated that I was taking so much time and wondering about how out of control my life was that I couldn't purchase a lemon, a small personal size heart cake for my mom, and a heart gift bag without being denied...I'm not paranoid or anything!) and I said, "What does it say?"

She said, "It says blocked." I said, "Blocked?" At this point the not so helpful bagger girl says loudly, "Oh, you have probably gone over your maximum purchases allowed in a day." I said, "I don't have a maximum amount in purchases per day."

Then, I said to the lady, "Can I write a check?" She said, "Sure." So, I wrote out a check for $8.79 (out of the same account that was denied!), came home, and called TCF to see why my account was blocked. I told her that my card had been denied and she looked at my records and said, "No, it wasn't. Nothing was showing as having been submitted even. If they had submitted it and it was denied, she would be able to tell me why, but they hadn't even submitted it."

Puzzled, I said, "But, she told me it said blocked." Oh, said TCF lady, "Blocked is a totally different thing. When it says blocked, that is a problem in the Lund's system that is preventing the purchase from even being submitted for payment."

It did explain why the bagger girl also told me not to worry, this had happened to a lot of people today!

Someday, I will tell you all my exciting adventures with the TCF check card fraud people....who like to put holds on your card after you use it because they are not sure you are you!