How do you deal with these fraud holds? I can't buy a pack of gum without them denying the charge EVEN if I call and notify them I am about to make a charge.

Just plow through it and after enough calls and purchases it becomes very rare, or goes away completely. Takes about a month before it drops off to acceptably rare levels.

That's your problem! Packs of gum are totally suspicious activity.

Oh totally! Fresh breath is very suspicious.

On a side note.. Every chip transaction I try declines. I called Wells Fargo 10? times over the last three days each time thinking it was their fraud people. Ultimately, I got some lady who was CONVINCED it was the chip reader. Apparently 4 different CVS stores and 3 different Walmarts have defective chip readers that only manifest their issues with a Wells Fargo card. She went as far as telling me to tell the CVS lady to MANUALLY key in my card number. This was after I sat on the phone with her for twenty minutes (yeah, I guess I am the only one in the whole CVS). She then called out the cashier (speaker phone) and told her to get her supervisor to manually key in my card.. She was the store manager.

Finally got the WF supervisor on the phone who is also convinced it is either the card or the reader and not WF who is declining the charges. Getting a new card delivered Friday...

Tested the card this morning with a $2 charge using the swiper and it went right through.

Has anyone had this happen to them?

Yes. The replacement card wont work either, I have tried 3x already. There is something ....ed up in their chip manufacturing process. It is NOT a fraud issue.

Really? This sucks!! Any way around it?

You should be able to make purchases up to "available credit" on this account, correct? and one more thing, you want to make sure your available credit doesn't go negative.

Also, Let's say the CL is 5K, how many times the CL you can make purchases in the given statement period? and still be safe.

once to be safe, that is y its called credit limit

Sort of a misleading answer. The credit limit is how much credit can be extended at any one point in time. Obviously you should not (cannot?) exceed that.

The question was how many times can one cycle through that limit (charge and then pay off) per statement period. From my read of several posts, 2-3 times seems to be OK. Sure once is "safe" but so is twice, in my experience. For many, once is not enough. :p

Will try 2 times for first month and if still alive go up to 3 times.

any amount is safe till it isnt. Once is safe.

^ best answer IMO.

as long as one is not shutdown, they can hammer it away like the rest doing over $100K.....just because they can.

after having this in the past, what worked for me was asking for a CLI when I activated the card and after the rep saw I had a huge balance on my WFC/A, they gave me what I was asking. I cycled up to 5x up to six figures with a lot of challenges that were manageable but nonetheless stressful. If asked if I'll get this card again, I won't.

After the last four months, with 2 more to go, I will definitely be happy to take a 1-2 months break before becoming an AU. Everything runs like clockwork except for the occasional lack of funds to pay CL (MLK day screwed me up bad), and the occasional screwed up funds transfer. For me, it's days of monotonous (but profitable) routine followed by hours of "OH SH** OH SH** OH SH**".

Kinda like the rest of life. ;)

One shouldn't trust every message that is put out here, one must go by one's gut. Take everyone's opinion but ultimately you know your situation better, trust your own experience,knowledge, your gut and live with it, after all, you are not losing your skin here. Just in last few months, the liquidation scenario have vastly changed. What worked in the past is not true anymore.

I agree completely that the limiting concern is liquidation, not the number of cycles through the credit limit.