I received my HSBC card replacement yesterday. I did not expect that they would send the replacement card in a span of three days as the normal turnaround would have been 10-19 banking days.
I realized that my card was compromised when I saw the text message about the OTP that I needed to provide to push through with the transaction. It was early morning when I read it so I called the customer service right away. He verified that there was an attempted transaction that failed because of the need to provide the OTP but unfortunately, an earlier transaction was successful.
He provided me the merchant’s name, it was an organization that’s based abroad. In the end, he suggested blocking the card and advised me to file a dispute.
The only physical store where I use my card is this mall where I buy groceries. In terms of online payment, I use my card to pay for our electric bill. I requested for a CCTV viewing access to the mall to check if there’s anything suspicious at the time when I was doing my payment. Unfortunately, the mall stopped replying to my messages when I insisted for a CCTV viewing access. I’m not saying that the cashier had something to do with it; I just want to be objective and know the answer. Because if it’s not them, then maybe it’s the online payment.
It’s good that I receive text notifications for purchases that are PhP3000 and above. Otherwise, I would risk being robbed of larger amounts without me knowing until my next billing statement. Looking back, I realize that I made the correct decision when I asked HSBC to decrease my credit limit from 6-digit to a manageable 5-digit. Credit card dispute and fraud investigation takes time, I don’t want to stress myself into that.
The lessons that I learned are these: cover the CVV for physical transaction and clear the cache for the online transaction. My friend suggested adding an online credit card account but I have yet to explore it with my credit card company if that’s possible.
The World of Second Chances 