Think You've Got Credit Card Problems ??

[8mileshigher]

from MSNBC.com


Wow! A Quadrillion-Dollar Credit Card Bill
By Ellen Goldberg
NBCDFW.com
updated 5:17 p.m. PT, Wed., July 15, 2009
A North Texas man has a 17-figure credit card statement after a bank glitch resulted in an eye-popping charge.

This is what it looks like: $23,148,855,308,184,500.00.

Here’s how to say it: 23 quadrillion,148 trillion, 855 billion, 308 million, 184,000, 500 dollars.

It's more than 2,000 times the national debt -- and, according to Jon Seale's online credit card statement, it’s what he spent July 13 at Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck.

“For that amount of money, I could actually own Wolfgang Puck himself," Seale said.

Seale, a husband and father of five from Trophy Club, spent much of Tuesday making calls to Wachovia and Visa in hopes of getting the exorbitant charge removed from his Wachovia Visa Buxx credit card. Both companies told him they were working to resolve the issue.

“It's an inconvenience, but it's not like I was truly worried my money was gone," he said. "It’s an obvious, glaring error.”

Seale even tried tracking down the celebrity chef himself.

“I tried to find Wolfgang Puck on Facebook and add him as a friend to see if he’d make a comment, but I didn’t have any luck finding him," Seale said.

Visa said the technical glitch that resulted in the giant charge only affected some customers with prepaid Visa cards.

"A temporary programming error at Visa Debit Processing Services caused some transactions to be inaccurately posted to a small number of Visa prepaid accounts," said Visa spokeswoman Elvira Swanson said in a written statement. "The technical glitch has been corrected, and all erroneous postings have been removed.”

Steale was not the only Visa Buxx cardholder to see the huge charge on his statement. A New Hampshire man found the $23 quadrillion charge after buying a pack of cigarettes at a gas station. A Visa representative said affected customers will also have the $20 overdraft fees removed.

[cjj]

That's definitely worse than me... but not by a whole lot...

Or so it seems anyway...

[johnallg]

A Visa representative said affected customers will also have the $20 overdraft fees removed.

Well that was so decent of them.....

[jimk]

I heard the interview with Seale on NPR this afternoon. At least the guy was able to laugh about it.
JimK

[collin]

What the???

HE'S the guy responsible for the current credit crunch.

I forget that figures like a Quadrillion even exist. I mean, a trillion of anything is a LOT.....

[wmthor]

Here's another story from the Associated Press

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — A New Hampshire man says he swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and was charged over 23 quadrillion dollars.

Josh Muszynski checked his account online a few hours after the purchase and saw the 17-digit number — a stunning $23,148,855,308,184,500 (twenty-three quadrillion, one hundred forty-eight trillion, eight hundred fifty-five billion, three hundred eight million, one hundred eighty-four thousand, five hundred dollars).

Muszynski told WMUR-TV that he spent two hours on the phone with Bank of America trying to sort out the string of numbers — and the $15 overdraft fee.

The bank corrected the error the next day.

Bank of America said the card issuer, Visa, could answer questions. Visa, in turn, referred questions to the bank. (More on this story here — and see the bill.)

[beatlefreak]

You know what they say - To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer.

[tyarbrough]

A Visa representative said affected customers will also have the $20 overdraft fees removed.

Well that was so decent of them.....

Think about it...Visa already made 2-3% of 23 quadrillion and they will still tag the cardholder for 20 bucks extra.

[whojamfan]

I knew smokes were expensive, but DANG!