I received a letter from Elan that my Visa card had been upgraded with all these new "super" features, none of which I really needed or wanted. The letter stated that I should have already received my card and all I needed to do was activate it.
The problem was that I never received the card. If I did, I might have thrown it out knowingly or unknowingly, but I doubt it.
Then I received an email touting all the benefits of the new card. That was ten days ago. I sent email to the local branch manager of the bank that issued the card; she replied she would check on it and asked me to call at the end of the week if I still had not received it. I did not receive the card by Friday
Today I talked with somebody in the main office of the bank and she said they would request a new card for me and I should have it Wednesday. Elan would charge a $15 lost card fee but the bank would give me credit for it.
Now I'm going to have to go through all the organizations that I have authorized to debit my credit card automatically and change my account number. What a nuisance!
So, why did Elan decide I should have something that I didn't ask for? Are they hoping that the "rewards" offered with the card would induce me to spend more? I suppose lots of people will be overjoyed to be upgraded.
I guess the upside is that I can use the points to pay on the balance. The mischievous part of me wants to use it every month. Let's see, a $100 balance would give me 100 points. Would that be a dollar, a dime, or a penny? It reminds me of the people who overpaid charge card bills by one cent because they were not getting any response from the store about a problem. A clerk processing the checks would notice, but a computer processing thousands of electronic payments would probably not notice.
Well, the computer might notice and send a message to somebody, but since so many companies won't allow spaces in a keyed-in card number, would any take the time to put in such a filter?
