For the second time this month, today I went to use my CIBC “convenience” card for the first time and was greeted with: “You have exceeded your daily limit.” When I call telephone banking I get the same story: CIBC Fraud Detection has identified that my card could have been possibly stolen, so they set my daily limit to $0 to protect me. All they will say is my card was used at an ATM or store that the police have told them could be compromised. But they can’t tell me where, or when. To get it reactivated, I have to go change my PIN at a CIBC ATM (a rare sight in downtown Toronto for some reason) within 1 hour of the call, then wait 4 hours.

When I asked to talk to a supervisor, he went into a sob story about how there’s just so much fraud now that they have to disable all the cards that were used at any store the police report to them. I told him that I just use my card at other bank tellers (never those sketchy independent ATMs) and Subway. Doesn’t matter, they are trying to protect me. That seems unlikely. If my card and PIN were actually stolen, I would call them up, tell them about it, and they would replace the funds (that’s the friendly CIBC guarantee). So really, they are just protecting themselves by locking down my card at the drop of the hat…and pissing me off.

To me, my bank card with a PIN and a daily cash limit of $200 seems way more secure than my CIBC VISA card with a $10,000 limit and no PIN. Yet, the only time my VISA has been disabled was when I go on trips, and in that case they reactivate it in about 5 minutes over the phone. Granted, any card is fundamentally insecure but having that card to get at your money easily is really the only reason to keep a chequing account open. Otherwise, I would just have a stack of cash under my mattress and a shotgun.

I’m not going to feel sorry for all the fraud plaguing CIBC (with their record profits). The cost of keeping me as a customer is losing $200 (my daily limit) if I were dumb enough to let someone see my PIN code. Deal with it. I’d move to another bank if I thought it would be any different.