Irate Canadian client pays Visa pennies (Patriot Act related)

[Newsjock]

http://globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051123.wxvisa23/BNStory/Business

Don Rogers wanted to make a statement. A 32-foot credit card statement, to be precise, one he hopes will help him win a long-simmering privacy feud with his bank and at the same time nab a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

The 62-year-old retired city councillor from Kingston, Ont., paid his $230 Visa bill last month in 985 instalments, often pennies at a time, to protest against the fact that his bank outsourced some of its credit card processing to a U.S. company. Mr. Rogers said he asked Vancouver-based Citizens Bank of Canada several times to end the practice, because U.S. authorities could potentially gain access to his personal information under the wide-ranging Patriot Act, a piece of legislation designed to crack down on terrorism.

... "It's subjecting me to American laws, which is just unacceptable to me as a Canadian citizen," Mr. Rogers said. "This is a profoundly serious issue. Canadian credit card holders should be concerned about this. "

[Union Thug]

1. Nice! Good man. It would be GREAT if we all followed his lead!

[baldguy]

2. He's right.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Hey! My Toronto Dominion Card was taken over by Citibank

So, do I have the same worries?

[applegrove]

4. So do we have to get rid of microsoft too? I think it is impossible.

[Bozita]

5. He shouldn't worry. The US company will outsource it to India.

His personal data will only be in the States for a short time.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[unblock]

7. i think my online pay systems limit me

if you go to the credit card site (to 'pull' your payment), i think they limit you to 4 payments per cycle, or one payment per week or something like that.

if you go to your bank site (to 'push' your payment) i think they prevent you from making two payments within 10 minutes or some such, to prevent accidents.

:shrug:

anyway, i guess not all banks/card sites have such limitations....