Simpler Times Spent

When I was 19 and had finished high school, I took a year off to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. In that time, I took on full-time hours at the paint and wallpaper store where I had worked in my spare time while in school.

I also applied for my first credit card.

At first, I was afraid to use it and promised myself that I would use it only in cases of emergency, that I would still use cash as my primary form of payment. For almost the first six months with my card, which originally had an $800 limit, I never touched it.

It was a friend who worked in another bank who told me that it was a good idea to use the card at least once every six months, to keep the account from going dormant. And so, just before my six-month, semi-anniversary, I used my card to purchase gas at my local Sunoco.

I felt instantly grown-up, felt that I was a responsible member of society.

I tried my card again, at a nearby restaurant, Hurley's, on an evening with my friends. I showed them the flashy plastic. Oh yeah, my confident grin revealed, I'm a contributing member of society.

I paid the bill, in full, when it first arrived. Only a handful of charges, well within my means. It wasn't so hard to be responsible and use the card. Perhaps, I'll use it more often, I persuaded myself.

Each month, it was easy to see my spending habits. My bar tabs at Ruby Tuesday's. New clothes at Warren's House of Britches. Rolls of film at Black's Cameras.

My first large expense came the following year, when I paid for my college tuition and books on my credit card. Having returned to part-time hours, I found that I had to reduce my entertainment spending. I also carried a balance for the first time, though I worked extra hours to get my debt paid off.

When I left the paint store to work at Black's, I made more money but I spent more, too. More bars, more restaurants. Though I received substantial discounts at work, I bought more film, expanded my camera equipment. My credit card was becoming less of a status symbol and more of a ball and chain.

It wasn't until I worked at a bank, had managers and accountants who had my best interest at heart, that I got my credit-card spending under control. And, when I moved to Korea, I became fully debt-free.

Over this summer, DW and I found ourselves in our basement, clearing out junk and reducing paperwork, that I found an old cardboard box with the words, Ross' Old Receipts. In it, the first five years of VISA statements: the receipts, stapled neatly in chronological order; the items on each statement, checked off with pencil marks. Long before the tap or swipe, the card would be slowly worn out from a carbon-paper slip being pressed against the raised numbers, name, and expiry date. My signature, evolving over the years, scribbled on the bottom line.

By today's standards, my monthly expenses were minimal, rarely more than a couple-hundred dollars. Even when I flew to Cancun and to Scotland, or when I paid for my college semesters, the total rarely broke the thousand-dollar mark.

Good ol' days.

To keep my credit-card bills under $5,000 each month, these days, is a challenge. But I always pay my balance, in full.

I'm a responsible, contributing member of society, after all.

Hacked

For those of you who are in my e-mail address book for my personal account, you probably already know by now that my account was hacked this weekend.

It was a simple e-mail message, with no subject line, no body, no signature. Just a hyperlink. Anybody who knows anything about me knows that I don't do this. As a writer, I am compelled to write something that would set up the link. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I have a subject line. The only time I leave one off is if I get caught up in writing the message and forget. But that's rare.

Luckily, many of you figured that the e-mail was not from me. Thanks to those of you who brought the matter to my attention.

This is the first time in almost 20 years of having an e-mail account that I've been hacked. I felt violated. I was pissed. I created my Roland Axam account, hoping that I could avoid spammers and junk mail. I didn't give much thought to hackers, and I guess that's the thing about being hacked: you never know when it can happen and there's probably not a lot you can do to guard against it.

A couple of years ago, I received a call from my credit card company. They told me that there had been some atypical activity on my card and wanted to confirm that I had performed the transactions. But first, they wanted to ask some security questions, starting with my mother's maiden name, which I immediately provided.

"That's incorrect," I was informed. "You had recently changed your mother's maiden name."

Now think about this: my mother's maiden name had been changed. The name that she was born with was no longer valid.

"How does someone change a maiden name?" I asked. "Tell me how that's possible."

"Hmm... " pondered the representative, the gears turning, the idiocy of the situation taking shape. "Can I have your address?"

I provided the information. Again, it was incorrect.

"You called to provide a change of address and requested a secondary cardholder card."

"What information was provided to make these changes? My birth date? That's common knowledge. What else had been asked? Did the person know my mother's maiden name? I mean, the name that you had on file; not the name he changed it to?"

"I don't have that information, but he must have had enough information to get the address change and the secondary card. So I take it you didn't make a purchase at Best Buy in Toronto for $13,000? Did you get a cash advance for $5,000?"

"No and no!"

And thus began my first incident of identity theft. It took some time, but the charges were reversed, a new card was issued, and my credit remains untarnished. And I implemented a few added security precautions: if I go into a branch of my bank to make a change to my credit card, I must provide my passport and I must speak provide a verbal password. On the phone, I have two verbal passwords. If I don't get any one of them, they are to deny me (more to the point, the imposter) any service.

For my e-mail account, I have changed my password and have implemented a security feature where an access code is sent to my smartphone whenever my account is accessed from a computer other than my usual three.

This hacker was somewhere in Vietnam. I doubt they'll be able to access my devices from there.

But, of course, to believe I won't be hacked again is foolish. I just hope it takes another 20 years before it does.