Bargain Quest

It was a busy weekend around here - I sold my first car and had a credit card declined for the first time. The two events are related.

The car was my cute ‘94 Honda Accord I bought shortly before getting married. We’ve had 3 vehicles for a while now and it was time to let one go. I loved my car, but it had more issues than our other two vehicles, including broken A/C. Considering how hot it’s been here in Richmond, a car without air-conditioning probably isn’t the smartest thing for a pregnant woman to be driving anyway. I handled getting it ready for market, and my husband was kind enough to assume the task of negotiating with buyers. Actually, “buyer” singular. He sold it to the first car-hunter who called at 6:30am the day the ad ran.

A chunk of Honda sale proceeds were designated towards the purchase of a fancy digital SLR camera that I’ve had my eye on for a long time. So Saturday afternoon, I racked up a significant amount of credit card charges at online electronic retailers buying the camera and two lenses. It all went on my Chase Business Rewards card, which I’ve only had since May.

Therefore, I wasn’t too surprised the next day when the gas station pump rejected my Chase card. Sure enough, my card was frozen. The hold was easily resolved with a call to Chase customer service, verifying my mother’s maiden name, etc. and that it was indeed me indulging in a spending spree. (Coincidentally, my husband’s credit card was put on fraud alert at the same time, in his case for a test one-dollar charge run by a service to which he was subscribing.)

I miss my Honda, but can’t wait to put my new camera through its paces!