Originally Posted by
txflyer77
Merchants can subscribe to account updates in order to receive new numbers or expiration dates. Virtually all large merchants do this, or their merchant service provider handles it on their behalf. Very standard.
Right, but the problem is the merchants are still charging the old numbers, and Amex is still letting the charges through.
I'm not sure who ends up eating these fraud costs (probably merchant if it's card not present, or [cloned] magnetic swipe), but it seems like significant waste in the system. A few of mine were airline charges (both via Expedia I think); and as far as I could tell from one instance on Delta, the passengers actually ended up flying, even though I reported the fraud immediately after the initial authorization before the charge even posted, and the travel date wasn't for a couple of weeks.
There's really a mess going on here...
And if Amex doesn't want to block the old numbers or supress the merchant update service upon demand, I guess I will just have to cancel my account because I'm sick and tired of all the time on the phone with them.