How Bank of America made P2 go into a branch to clear a fraud alert

Late last week, Lowe’s had this appliance glitch where they were 90% off or so and if you ordered 6, the order would be free. Naturally I made something like 2 dozen orders, all on my wife’s BoA TR card. Now we’ve had this card for nearly 10 years or so and are Platinum Honors. It’s our go-to unbonused spend card. We’ve cycled it in the past and so it’s been a workhorse. I do believe I did get an FA after the 5th or so Lowe’s order, which we quickly cleared.

The next day, I went to charge $2500 on the card. There was no text FA or anything. I logged into the app and it said to call BOA. I had my wife call in later that night; it was on speakerphone and I was next to her. The rep asked about the Lowe’s charges and then asked about the $2500 charge at a grocery store. Irate, I blurted out “DRUGS!” but luckily my wife was smart enough to change it to “It was at the pharmacy.” After a 5 minute hold, the rep told my wife that she’d have to go in branch to verify her identity to clear the fraud.

I’m not sure what made them make my wife go in branch. I get that 20 Lowe’s charges does look fishy, but we had cleared the fraud alert that was sent to her phone. I also get a $2500 charge at a grocery store looks fishy too, but once again, the fraud team hung up the conversation and called my wife’s phone number that has been on file for a decade. Or maybe it was me yelling DRUGS in the background – maybe they thought it wasn’t her making the charges since I was telling her what to say.

Lessons learned here – use an AMEX if you’re going to bang out 20 Lowe’s orders. Secondly, when P2 has to get on the phone, make sure you’re not on speakerphone yelling out the answers for her; maybe use a PC or type out the answer or mute the phone until she’s ready to speak.