I've been in three cities in the last five days. On my flight the other morning, I tried to connect to the wifi on the plane. The system said there was an unknown error processing my debit card.
I tried a different card ... same thing.
I figured something wasn't working for the airline and went about my trip.
The next morning, I was headed out again and while at my gate, waiting to depart, I went online to order Leighton's dress and shoes for our trip to New York to see Annie on Broadway.
At the point of checkout, my credit card was declined.
So I tried another.
Declined.
And another.
Declined.
And another.
Declined.
I felt like Sandra Bullock in The Net. What the hell?
More importantly, I was ordering this dress at the last possible second to arrive in time for our trip and was two seconds from boarding a plane. My working mom guilt immediately rose two more levels.
I WAS COMPLETELY DECLINED.
Apparently, even my banks felt I had been traveling too much. (Working mom guilt up one more level).
Every single card and account I had was flagged for suspected fraud.
This sucked in a particularly bad way because I was on my way to rent yet another car and check in to yet another hotel in yet another city in a few hours.
It took me a while to call all of these banks to alert them to my whereabouts and assure them that I was making legitimate purchases.
Each bank representative asked the same question, "Did you call us to let us know you'd be traveling?" I assured Chase, Citibank, Bank of America and ING that I was not prepared to call them every two days to keep them apprised of my travel schedule.
I suggested we share a calendar instead. I also explained that I like to earn points and certain cards are good for certain pints ... one for airfare, one for hotel, one for meals etc.
I can't possibly be the only one with this seemingly complicated existence. Could I?
Either way, I will be traveling less for a while. My banks are happy, my little girls are thrilled and my working mom guilt is all but gone.
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