So says many American’s whose credit cards have been frozen for making a large payment.

What?

I know, when I first read about this, I was pretty shocked. But, it turns out that if you make too big of a payment on your credit cards, it sends up a red flag and Homeland Security has to get involved. Your account could be frozen while they determine whether or not you pose a threat.

The reason is because a large chunk of terrorism is supposedly funded by credit cards. I wrote about this in another post, which you can read here. Credit card companies are under strict orders to monitor fluctuation in payments every month and if a payment goes over a certain percentage then they’re required to notify Homeland Security.

What that percentage is, I don’t know. I don’t think this was actually something we were really supposed to find out about, truth be told. The story I read indicated that a customer hounded his credit card company until someone finally explained what was going on. I called my credit card company and asked them if this was true. The first girl I got had no clue and put me on hold to ask. I got tied up with something else and had to hang up, but when I called back and asked for a supervisor, the supervisor said that there were extenuating circumstances in which a large payment could trigger a red flag and Homeland Security would have to be alerted, but he didn’t go into too much detail thereafter.

Obviously 9/11 changed the way we look at things in terms of our security. But, at what point does it stop being about security? Some of our very basic freedoms are being infringed upon; spying on cell phone conversations, freezing our credit accounts, search and seizure with nothing more than circumstantial evidence. I’m sure I’m missing much in this very short list. And what have we really accomplished? I mean, freezing someone’s credit card accounts and investigating them because they made the decision to pay down some debt hardly seems like a productive use of my taxpayer dollars.

Where do we draw the line? At what point do we say it’s no longer about stopping terrorism and it’s now about an infringement of American rights? This is moving beyond just a credit card discussion a little, but I’m curious as to what you think. Do you feel as though your rights have been infringed on, or do people just blow these things out of proportion?

I’m not going to drag this out into a long political debate – but I do hope we get some interesting comments for discussion! – however, I wonder if this has happened to anyone here. We’ve all be in a position to pay down credit cards, so have you made a large payment and noticed a freeze on your account? Were you told the truth, or did the customer service person dance around the issue? For obvious reasons, this isn’t something they disclose, so I wonder how many people have been investigated and didn’t even know it. It’s a little disturbing to think big brother’s watching, and we wouldn’t even know it!

I know a few of our readers have worked, or still do work, in the credit and banking industry. What have you guys heard about this?

Let’s discuss!

Related posts:

1. The Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights
2. Binding Arbitration: A Rewrite of Consumer Rights?
3. The credit card Bill of Rights: An indepth look
4. Obama proposes Credit Card ‘bill of rights’
5. Where The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Stands