Hasta La Vis(t)a, Baby!

Chase, the issuing bank of my United Visa Card suck. I had been in the thoughts of changing cards since United was no longer my airline of choice (prices too high, staff who hate their jobs and refuse to smile at you, slim chances of ever getting upgrades no matter how good your status and various other crap that pissed me off), but the thought of spending time updating my automatic payments was just too much to bear.

However, Chase decided to make it a lot easier for me today - the card got rejected when I tried to fill the car up this lunchtime (despite it working this morning for my BMW Car Club membership - I'll post about that at some point when I'm not so angry). So, having had them shut down the card at inopportune moments in the past (think week of the wedding when trying to pay for the flowers, despite me making a courtesy call to them the week before I left for England telling them that there were going to be a lot of big charges from a foreign country on there), I thought I knew the drill - ring up, tell them the charges were legit, and they'd apologize, re-instate the card and I'd be good to go.

Of course, they have to throw in a curve ball, given that I'm about to embark on one of those nightmare travel few months when you grab a day or two here and there in your own bed while desperately trying to stay sane. The card was just cancelled - no discussion, no negotiation, no explanation of any worth (the security team decided it had been compromised was the most I got out of anyone), and the new one won't arrive for another 4 or 5 business days (meaning 2 hotels, 2 flights, a rental car and untold meals etc later). And they can't automatically transfer my regular payments over to some other account because the number has to change, and that's just beyond their capabilities.

So, if I have to do all the leg work anyway to change that stuff, I may as well take the opportunity to never use the card again. American Express, you now have the chance to win my business for life, so please, don't let me down.....