I'm not much of a big spender these days, but I do tend to do my shopping in one big burst once or twice a month. So, I went and bought my child support money order, and then I went to buy some stuff for the apartment that I'd saved up for (shower curtains, curtain rods, that kind of thing). I was appalled when, at the cash register, even though I had a thousand bucks in my bank account (not for long, mind you - I'd just gotten paid two days ago, and it would soon be eaten up by the usual bills! ) my debit card was declined at the cash register.

So I called my credit union today and asked them why my limit was so low, and why they would not let me have access to all of my money all of the time. She tried to say it was a security issue, but then I said, "If it's a security issue, then why are there different limits for different people? My limit used to be $1000, and now it's $500. How would the security issue be any different for me or for anyone else?" She said that it has to do with whether I'm a long-term customer or someone who is new, and that I should have $1000, but if I were new, I might have even less than $500. I asked her, "How am I, a long-term customer, any less likely to have my card stolen than a new customer? It's obviously not about security, or every customer would have exactly the same limit, since every customer has the same chance of having their card stolen."

She said that I could request to raise my limit. I said, "Okay, I'd like it raised to $2000 a day, just in case I need to spend over $1000 on something if I've saved my money up." (My laptop would have been a good example of that - it cost me $1038, and I wouldn't have been able to pay for it by debit using these rules.)

She said that if I ever need a large amount of money at once, I can call the credit union, have the limit raised temporarily, and then it would go back down again. But that it wouldn't be raised for 1 business day after I call - so if I decided on a Friday to go and get something I needed on a Sunday (or had some kind of emergency), I wouldn't have access to the money in my account.

This really pisses me off. It's my money, and I should be able to spend it where and when I want to, and I should have access to it when I need it. I know, in the old days before bank machines, people had to withdraw money during business hours and blah blah blah, but these aren't the old days, we have the technology to do point-of-sale transactions, and cheques were much more widely accepted then than they are now anyhow.

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Originally posted by 500_Apples:
Just use a credit card and pay it off immediately via internet banking, I've never encountered these withdrawal limits on internet banking.

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It's particularly egregious that they changed it without telling you.

I used to have a credit card that I used rarely, if at all, except for work expenses. At the time I had a very intense, lucrative summer job.

So, one summer I was crossing the province as a part of my job. I filled up the company vehicle at a couple of gas stations along the way, using the credit card. As I was pulling out of the second gas station, 800km from my home, my company cell phone rang.

Guess who - it's Visa. They've noticed some 'unusual activity' on my account and wanted to make sure it was me. I assured them it was, despite being thoroughly creeped out - the phone number for that cell was unlisted, I have no idea how they got it. Despite my assurances, they froze the card, which left me in a very awkward position after my next fillup. Eventually I sorted it out with them over the phone, but man...