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Frank has a site and serves as a consutant on security. (I suggest reading his Film and Book Comments) He's enjoyed a successful career after turning honest. Hopefully Kevin can do likewise. I recognized his name in an article on avoiding identify theft this morning.

BIG BANKER IS WATCHING

All the AMEX payment coupon said at the time was, "Please do not send cash." That's a far cry from "Cash will not be accepted." It was more of a pleasant request. Well, I denied that request.

Furthermore, if they sent back my pennies, I would have then paid with a check written on a pair of underwear that were worn daily for one week, specifically for the purpose of getting them funky. And yes, it is possible to write a check on pretty much anything, before you dispute that, too.

It is generally not wise to *really* piss me off, and AMEX did it in spades... first by screwing up my account in a way that could have damaged my credit, then by providing very poor customer service, and then by threatening legal action over my website without the apparent thought, "Gee, how did we anger this person so much that he went to the trouble to make this whole website to complain about us? Maybe we should talk to him and try to rectify the situation." No, they just did the typical, uncaring-huge-company routine and pointed the lawyers at me. My understanding that "these things happen" was gone by about the second month of trying to get them to straighten everything out.

~Philly

Was ahead of his time by packaging and selling the rights to his current/future music back in the early 90s.

Unfortunately, BowieBanc didn't fare as well ("Bowie bank leaves the stage") -

Bank officials didn't return our calls, but BowieBanc has, reportedly, been folded into USABancShares, which is being investigated by the FDIC for alleged violations of banking regulations.

On the other hand, it seems the Thin White Duke had a way with words back almost two years, with respect to digital piracy -

"Where are the major artists on the Web?", he asks. "Most MP3s are from unknown artists and most of the songs are crap!"

Visionary, or just outspoken?

Let's see, except for the bike, none of the things you listed can go 17 mph

And do you really think a forklift costs less than a segway?

And, do you really think that a segway will allow you to carry as much stuff as a forklift?

Yes, I'm being a smartass, but so were you. I know that segway prices will eventually come down. But you also know that I wasn't recommending a forklift as personal transportation. The forklift's benefit is that, in a warehouse, one is often walking around to find some part and bring it back. If the part is heavy, a segway just won't help.

A close relative of the CRA's is an agency called ChexSystems. ChexSystems is supposed to keep information on people who have defrauded banks, but often all it takes to get on their list is one bounced check, or forgetting to move an automatic debit to your new account after closing the old one. A ChexSystems record is the KISS OF DEATH financially speaking.

I was reported to them for a car payment which was auto-debitted from my checking account. After cancelling my old account, I informed my bank that I wanted the payments to come from the new checking account. They didn't do it for three months (during which time I was calling them regularly to try to get the auto-debit moved), and the ensuing confusion was cause enough for this bank to report me to ChexSystems. Not that I knew anything about it at the time. It was only a year later, when I moved to another city and attempted to start a checking account there, that I found out what had happened. After looking all around town for a bank that did not use ChexSystems (and in a town like Dallas, there are a lot of banks to look at), I finally concluded that the only way for me to get a checking account would be to get rid of the ChexSystems record.

After some research, I determined that a ChexSystems entry stays on file for FIVE YEARS, and that it is almost impossible to either get the record removed before then (whether or not the information is valid) or to get an account with any institution despite the entry. After a week or so of trying to contact ChexSystems, it became obvious that if I was going to get anything done, it would be through the bank, not through them. ChexSystems said that the only way they would update their information would be at the request of the bank who reported me. Fine. I called the bank and it wasn't hard to get them to fax documentation to ChexSystems saying that all amounts were paid in full and that no outstanding debt existed. Thinking I had the problem taken care of, I attempted again to open a checking account.

No luck. It turns out that even if all amounts are paid, the mere presence of a ChexSystems record of the event is enough to be denied for any sort of account. I had to climb the bank's chain of command all the way to the director for the southwest region before getting any action. After spending a half hour of her (no doubt very expensive) time explaining what had happened to me, I was able to convince her to request that ChexSystems remove the record entirely. She told me that this essentially is never done, and that it was an enormous exception to their policies. I don't doubt it.

I consider myself very lucky. That was a year ago. The incident in question was a year before that. If I had not been able to convince this woman to purge my record, It would still be three years from now before I could have any hope of getting a basic checking account. During the time while I was sorting this stuff out, I was paying my apartment rent with money orders, cashing my paychecks at the local branch of the bank my company uses, and paying cash for everything I bought. No check card. No credit cards at that time. Can you imagine living that way for five years, because of either a screwup that wasn't your fault, or for one small mistake? It's appalling.

Here's an article that gives a fairly objective overview of the situation. And here's a site that takes a move combative stance.

Call your bank. Most likely they will simply issue you a new card.

Since you stated this is a debit card, be aware of a little-known fact:

Debit cards do not have the same protections as credit cards.

While many bank policies are similar to the legal limitations on credit card liability, they are not, repeat not subject to the same laws. Read this recent article explaining the differences. Under certain circumstances, your entire bank account could be cleaned out, and the bank wouldn't have to give you one cent back.
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