Shopping at the grocery store this morning, my Aerogold Visa was declined. I got home where I had a message waiting from CIBC asking that I call and quote a reference number. The CSR, an extremely rude individual, told me that a hold had been placed on my card pending the results of a random confirmation of my credit details. I pay my bills in full every month, so I'm not sure what the issue was. So I played along, giving him my previous address. Then he wanted eight digits from a MasterCard I hold with a different bank. I refused to give him this information and asked to speak with a supervisor. He stated I could not speak with a supervisor and put my on hold for at least 10 minutes. I then had to confirm pre-authorized payees, and some previous transactions, as well as my Aeroplan number. He then claimed someone tried to make a purchase at Wal-Mart of over $600 two days back and stated he would have to cancel my card and send me a replacement with a new number which I would have to give to my pre-authorized payees. He stated the $600 charge was declined, which surprised me because I had about $18,000 in available credit on that account.

The fact that this $600 fraudulent transaction was discovered only as the result of a "random" check was quite surprising. I would have thought that if they had declined a $600 charge due to suspected fraud that that would have been the reason for their call. I call shenanigans.

Has anyone else got one of these "random checks" months after getting a new credit card?

I had a similar experience with CIBC's lack of customer service. I was in vancouver in January of this year when it happened, and got my Aerogold ($20,000 limit) in August of last year. All my bills were paid on time. I got a message also stating to call the phone number and quote a reference number. The CSR was incredibly rude to me, and demanded that I fax them proof of my income before they would take a hold off my credit card. I asked her to speak to a supervisor, to which she replied that all of the supervisors were in a meeting. So I asked her when they would be finished. She stated she didn't know. So I asked her when the meeting started. She replied that she didn't know. Clearly a load of bullsh*t - she knew he was in a meeting, but didnt know when it started or finished lol... anyways, I told her she could just cancel my entire card, as I wouldn't be faxing any such proof of my income since they hadn't asked me for it when I first applied. I also demanded that since it was them putting a hold on my card, they refund the portion of my annual fee that would cover the next few months, until the card's renewal. I then hung up on her, and when I returned to Toronto I went to see my personal banker. Intrestingly enough, he already knew of the situation and told me that he was trying to handle it. I ended up getting $150 credit (the annual fee is only $120) and 2,500 aeroplan miles as their way of saying "sorry".

CIBC's customer service is pathetic. After that episode I decided just to go with the Avion - its not like you can even use the aeroplan miles to get any decent seats - all the seats I find seem to be for 70,000 points for economy on their "classic plus" program.

I have to say that I agree. CIBC's customer service just sucks. Most of their CSRs are just rude and don't know how to handle a customer in proper friendly french. I was asked to confirm lots of personal details and to fax in proof of income. too much hassle I just decided to cancel the card and now use a Amex gold and Avion.