Booking Amtrak tickets with Amtrak credit card sends me to fraud dept

[bratkinson]

Is it just me, or is it happening to others as well?

About a month ago, I decided to get some 'last real dining car' meal service before they're gone or converted to boxed dog food on 10/1. So, I booked at trip to WPB and back for later this month and after entering my credit card info, and clicking 'purchase ticket', a 'card verification' screen comes up and after a couple seconds reports I have to call a phone number that turns out to be Bank Americas' credit card fraud department. After talking with them and confirming I'm the real owner of the card, after re-entering the card info, every thing worked fine.

So, just now, I decided to do a similar trip on the Crescent and booked a trip to ATL and back the last week of September and it's off to the fraud department again! Of course, both times, the phone number information only stays on the screen for 10 seconds or so before the Amtrak booking system takes me back to the credit card info screen, which, of course, has lost all my credit card info.

I asked the agent I talked with WHY was I being referred to the fraud department. He indicated that Amtrak now has some kind of 2-step credit card 'authentication' process and for whatever reason thinks I'm not legit. Perhaps if I use the 'new feature' where Amtrak stores my credit card number the fraud would go away? But then, some hacker hacks the Amtrak computer and gets the credit card info. So far, other than my bank and credit card companies, only three very large well known companies have my credit card on file. So far, none of them have been hacked, as far as I know. Oh yea...I forgot about Experian!

 

[KnightRail]

Perhaps if I use the 'new feature' where Amtrak stores my credit card number the fraud would go away? But then, some hacker hacks the Amtrak computer and gets the credit card info. So far, other than my bank and credit card companies, only three very large well known companies have my credit card on file.

Hate to burst you bubble, but pretty much everywhere you use your credit card has some of your credit card info on file. Hypothetical: today you make a reservation(wherever, airline, hotel, etc.) for next June 2020. You don’t touch it until May 2020 when you decide you want to cancel and receive a refund. How do you think that money finds its way back to your credit card account? The merchant has been storing your card account details for nine months, that’s how. Another Hypothetical: you have a coach ticket and once onboard the train you decide you want to upgrade to business class. You phone the reservation center, they say that will be another $33, ‘do you want us to charge the original card you used when you made the reservation?’ You say sure, verify the security code, and boom the merchant uses your card information that they have been storing.

 

[glensfallsse]

This happened to me two days ago, or at least something similar. After putting in the credit card info a screen popped up saying they were texting me an authentication code (my phone was on mute so I didn't see it pop up). I've never seen that before, and I assumed it was asking again for that three-digit number on the back of the credit card. As soon as I made that mistake the system locked my credit card out of the system. Live and learn.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I had an issue with one of my AGR cards yesterday, but not with Amtrak. I was adding $ to my Ventra card and kept getting a “check your info”. Tried the other AGR and it went through.
Then I got an potential fraud email from BoA . I confirmed the 3 hits to my account were legit (two were just the $1 hits that occur when the account is verified).

 

[PVD]

It isn't restricted to their card, I had it a few weeks ago buying tickets for my Washington trip with my Discover card. Unfortunately, card and check fraud is widespread. In June, I had a check to the phone company stolen from the mailbox, "washed", and changed from $47 to $4700. Fraud dept caught it, called me, and I confirmed I did not write the check. Somehow, they managed to pay it, but I got the money back very quickly, since they were told not to pay it, there wasn't much for them to say. But I did have to change my account number and change my direct deposits and bill paying stuff. Major p-i-t-a.

 

[cruisegary]

... Perhaps if I use the 'new feature' where Amtrak stores my credit card number the fraud would go away? But then, some hacker hacks the Amtrak computer and gets the credit card info. So far, other than my bank and credit card companies, only three very large well known companies have my credit card on file. So far, none of them have been hacked, as far as I know. Oh yea...I forgot about Experian!

Not sure why there is a worry if someone gets your CC number?! If they do, you just get a new card. We do everything and I mean everything possible online giving out various CC info daily. Sure, fraud has happened, but we have 30+ CC's. Never been an issue and never had to pay a dime.

 

[Skyline]

I avoid buying anything online if at all possible. Sure, talking to a human being can encounter fraud alerts too, but it's SO much easier to resolve in real time.

 

[Anderson]

I haven't run into this...but that's because about 99%of the time I call in.

 

[jis]

BoA's fraud management is the most screwed up of all the various outfits whose credit cards I have. In my experience, of my cards, American Express is the best followed by Chase. With those two, which I use way more frequently than the BoA card I have not had a fraud requiring card replacement in years. With BoA, a card that is used only with Amtrak, I have had it replaced more than once on an average each year. I don't know what is it with them.

 

[flitcraft]

Yeah, BOA is the worst. Three years ago, we got a letter telling us that they were cancelling and replacing a credit card because it was possibly compromised. Then a year later, we got a charge on that cancelled charge from a bar in Spain for 40 euros. We contested it, of course, and BOA took it off our account, but later they claimed that 'after investigation,' they determined that we had made the charge. Their 'investigation,' apparently was pulling up the signed slip--with a signature that looked nothing like mine. And as a BOA customer for 30+ years, they had plenty of exemplars of my real signature. Called again, sent scans of my passport. Still they insisted that they were right. Despite the fact that they initiated the card cancellation for possible fraud over a year before it got used in Spain!

So, we pulled our bank account and Merrill Lynch accounts. With that kind of absurd record keeping, no way I'd trust them with my money.

 

[Chessie]

Wish I had a good alternative. BoA and Capital One are what we use and boy are they both unreliable.

And apparently those affected by the Equifax breach will get a fraction of that $125 promised. The rest go to the lawyers.

 

[Sauve850]

I have 3 BOA, a CAP One ,Chase and a PNC. All for over 15 years or more. No issues ever. Im thankful. I do go online every trip Im about to take and input every state I will be traveling in. I also dont do online booking often.

I also have frozen my credit for many years.

 

[Anderson]

On the Equifax mess, I wonder if a counter-class-action/class-action malpractice suit would have any teeth? With 100m+ affected, I don't see how anyone could have reasonably assumed that less than 1% would take the $125.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

On the Equifax mess, I wonder if a counter-class-action/class-action malpractice suit would have any teeth? With 100m+ affected, I don't see how anyone could have reasonably assumed that less than 1% would take the $125.

From what I have been reading, those signing up for a legal settlement with Equifax for $125, will probably never see most of it. The number of people settling for the cash payment option, has already exceeded the available funds put up by Equifax.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

I am not sure why the additional security is being portrayed here as bad.

I would guess that the first trigger for additional screening is that the card was not physically presented, and the card's "chip" was not read. The new credit card rules have that the merchant has to "eat" any fraud loss, and not the credit card company, if they don't read the "chip".

I can add my own story. I few years ago someone got ahold of my work CC number. They attempted to buy half a dozen iPhones. They did this by buying them at six different stores within an hour. This odd behavior got me a call from not only the CC people, but from Apple itself.

I guess once again I am not with the majority here. I welcome my CC banks to verify any purchase, especially on-line ones.

 

[Anderson]

From what I have been reading, those signing up for a legal settlement with Equifax for $125, will probably never see most of it. The number of people settling for the cash payment option, has already exceeded the available funds put up by Equifax.

That's why I'm thinking there's gonna end up being a secondary lawsuit or a serious objection to the settlement (I think you might even have a case for malpractice against the class action lawyers): There's enough press surrounding this that I think an enterprising lawyer could easily allege that the $125/person amount, being offered with a reserve that only allows for a few hundred thousand claimants in a class of well over 100 million, was agreed to in bad faith. Even a 1% uptake (1.47m) would have exhausted the allocated amount roughly six times over. The question "Did you really think that you could tell half of America that they could get $125 for free and not expect more than two in every thousand to take you up on it?" comes to mind.

(The other possibility is that people start claiming low-level "spent time" damages instead. Since they're apparently not requiring documentation up to ten hours at $25/hr, and given the situation following Deepwater Horizon where apparently a number of claims were approved with questionable connections to the disaster, I wouldn't be surprised to see the latter approach succeed. And no, I don't think it is moral, but I don't see too many people being worried about scruples here.)

 

[cruisegary]

I have 3 BOA, a CAP One ,Chase and a PNC. All for over 15 years or more. No issues ever. Im thankful. I do go online every trip Im about to take and input every state I will be traveling in. I also dont do online booking often.

I also have frozen my credit for many years.

I know this is common practice for folks, but I have stopped doing it. In fact, I can not remember the last time I did it within the U.S. I have done it for intl.

We travel just about monthly somewhere across the country. We never notify anyone. We each carry 2-3 different credit cards as backup, but never an issue.

 

[jis]

I have all my Visa and MC Cards explicitly blocked for international access, except for when I notify for specific countries for specific periods. Saves a lot of headache not having to chase down random charges from Lithuania and Lesotho. I do legitimate charges from countries that are considered high risk for fraud countries when I am traveling there.

American Express does neither international blocking nor notification of travel. I have no idea what they do to protect against fraudulent charges, but I have seldom had one with them. And on the rare occasion it happens they take the charge off immediately, no questions asked. Of course I also have a lengthy over 25 years continuous relationship with them too.

OTOH, our friends at BoA would not let me charge an upgrade from my Smartphone App the other day, so I had to use one of my other cards instead. Given that my travel on Amtrak is getting less frequent maybe it is time to cut up that card and be done with it. BoA also has one of the more convoluted web sites, the main purpose of which appears to be to confuse people into doing things that would allow them to charge interest and penalties.

 

[scrollmaster]

I have Amtrak World card for couple years and use multiple times daily. From time to time I have a charge denied (probably average once a month) and I check my messages and verify the charges listed are mine and then run the card again.
And the crazy thing is I eat breakfast at the Latin Food 5 to 6 days a week if we're not traveling and that's usually where I get denied.

 

[jis]

BoA has a special AI (Artificial Idiocy) system that governs their fraud detection service.

 

[JayPea]

I have two BoA Amtrak cards. One I have never had a problem with; with the second, just this past week I saw a charge on my statement that I didn't make, an on-line purchase of under $50 to Scentsy. I don't do candles or scented oils. I called BoA right away, and got the problem resolved. I now have a new card and number coming in the next few days. This is the third time this year for this. In the first instance, I got the letter stating my card may have been compromised and I'd be getting a new card. In the second, BoA alerted me by email. Turns out there were multiple attempts on the card which were declined, and finally an attempt that went through, to a Walgreens in Valparaiso, IN. I've never even been to Valparaiso. I let them know the charge wasn't mine and again got the problem resolved. I don't use this second card much; we'll see how long before this new card coming will be compromised.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Never had a problem when I had the BOA World Card, but since downgrading to the Platinum Card have had 2 Fraud attempts, One in Brazil and 1 in Californa that BOA caught and sent me New Cards with New #s.

None in the past year,but I did fail to get my Statement Last Month and had to call to Pay On-Line which was a Hassle.

I still prefer Dealing with Chase and my Credit Union when it comes to Cards and Financial stuff! YMMV

 

[Bex]

Yes, I had this issue also starting this week, although I've had it in the past as well. For starters, Amtrak has changed their site to be able to store your card info which is great, because on sale days I will often purchase 20 tickets at a time and copying and pasting my CC numbers gets old fast. But the fraud thing was beyond annoying and I had to call BoA and straighten it out. After that, all the sales went through no problem. I have cards with various banks and find BoA the worst for flagging frauds on ordinary purchases by far. Whatever algorithm they use makes no sense to me. Twenty bucks at my local Lowe's is a fraud, what? Using an Amtrak card for an Amtrak ticket is suspicious? It's bizarre, but I need this card so I deal with it.

 

[Sauve850]

Everyone seems to have favorite and least favorite companies. Id cancel the companies card you have trouble with and should help the situation thus saving you the aggravation.

 

[Old MM]

I have no complaints about my CC issuers or their security programs - Discover is my runaway favorite, followed by tepid satisfaction with BoA and Citi.