Watch Those $1 Holds

No, I'm not talking about Texas Hold'em. I'm talking about your credit card. A friend was checking a credit card account on-line and discovered a credit hold for $1. (In case you forgot, credit holds are placed before the actual charge to assure the provider of being paid.) Thinking this was strange, a call was placed to the credit card issuer. A person there called the 800 number (attached to the potential charge) to investigate the situation. A foreign language person answered and then transferred the call to another person. After the situation was explained, the telephone was disconnected by the called party. It all seemed very suspicious, so the fraud department of the issuer was notified and its recommended action was taken.

It seems that a person can "test out" a credit card number to see if it is valid. Once that is established, a charge could be placed at any time in the future. I don't know that this is the case here, but it sure seems like it is. The lesson here is to carefully monitor your credit card account. This is especially easy if you have on-line access.