You Never Think It Will Happen To You, Until It Happens To You

A little over a week ago we were on Maui for my cousin's wedding.

It was a beautiful weekend and a gorgeous wedding and reception.  We had a great time!

The only pics I got- me in the bridal party lineup!

There were some unusual events though.

Saturday night (the night of the reception), my husband went to the ATM at the hotel to take out cash to tip the bartenders (for his hosted Bellini's and my hosted Iced Teas).  It didn't work.

Weird.  Maybe it was the machine?

Then later into the night my dad decides to go on a beer run and takes hubby along.  At the store husband is ready to pay and it gets DECLINED! Poor thing was so embarrassed! My dad told him not to worry about it and paid for their booze.

The next day we're getting ready to have lunch with my college roommate and her brand spankin' new husband.  We stop at our bank to get some cash for the ATM.  His card doesn't work AGAIN!

The current balance was enough to cover our rent and expenses for the next few days.  But the available balance? hmmm... only a couple HUNDRED dollars!

Here in Hawaii that will not get you very far!

We rush back to my dad's apartment to look up our statement on line and yup, there it was in black and white.  There was almost $1K missing from our account!

Husband calls our bank and find out that someone in MICHIGAN used my hubby's debit card information to purchase 1) $30 worth of food/refreshments from Olive Garden and 2) over $800 in sporting goods!!

The crazy thing? As he was on the phone with our bank, ANOTHER charge was attempted but was blocked... $70 in gas!

The reason why his card was blocked on Saturday night was because of the "suspicious" activity.  The bank didn't bother to call, they just blocked his card.  Whatever.

At least it got us to call them.

After an hour long conversation we figured it all out.  An investigation was launched and now we are patiently waiting our reimbursement from the bank.

Lesson learned: Check your bank account often!

After this fiasco we learned that there were other people we knew that had this happen to them!

An uncle had someone using his credit card to purchase airfare and another college friend had someone buying porn out of New Zealand!

Crazy part of it all? My husband is UBER cautious of keeping his records safe and private.  We learned that sometimes people will just use random numbers and hope that they hit an actual account.  Or they could use heat sensors.  Or it could have been an inside job.

So now my husband has a bad taste in his mouth for all things Michigan.  He said he's even gonna stop cheering for their football team! I find that a bit extreme but he's been pretty sensitive about all this.

Sad part about all this? All the bank reps we spoke with said that unfortunately, it's not a matter of "IF" this happens to you, it's just a matter of time...