I received a couple of weird pieces of mail -- Airline tickets from American Trans Air and Southwest Airlines, addressed to people I don't know. I've never gotten the hang of how to tell the post office that I'm the wrong person. I assume they would just return it to sender if the address is "correct" but maybe they don't do that. In any case, I tried to send the mail back but the postal service gave it back to me so I just hung on to them in case the real recipients come a-calling to ask for them.

Misaddressed mail happens often enough that I forgot about it. Then, a week later, I was checking my Citibank online account and noticed a few extra charges that shouldn't have been there. Two from American Trans Air and one from Southwest Airlines. Hey that's weird. Of course it all comes together at this point. Looks like someone got hold of my credit card info, though they're not overusing it. And the Southwest Airlines transaction was reversed a couple of days later.

So I called the credit card company and they closed my account -- they'll give me a new card. They also sent me a form so that I can make a formal declaration of the extra charges. First thing that happens is that I get my credit card bill. What do you know, those extra charges are all from the old credit card number. About four months ago they switched my credit card from Visa to Mastercard, which came with a new number.

Now, a couple of charges during the transition month were done on the Visa card and they were transferred over to the Mastercard. But now it's three months later and they're still transferring charges to the new card? After telling me to notify all my merchants of the credit card change. Sheesh, you'd think they'd just deny the old credit card and have the merchant contact me.

In any case, I get the form. Not that much legalese. They want me to return it within five business days of spotting the error in my credit card bill. And it has to be notarized. Ok, it takes mail two or three days to get to me and another two or three days to get it back. And I have to find a notary public too. So it took me longer than five days and the notary public costs $10 which makes it hard to challenge a small charge. Unless there are a lot of them.

I spent a couple of hours looking for a notary public. Using the phone would have helped. But I didn't and it seems like everybody was one vacation. But now it's all done and we'll see if I have to pay the $700 in American Trans Air charges. I've used American Trans Air once, well almost. I bought my brother Chris' return ticket from Gen Con from them and cancelled it when his travel plans changed. SouthWest I don't think I've ever used, but I've had that credit card for a decade so it's not out of the question.

Well, what lessons do I get out of this? Hmm, nothing. I use my credit card so much there's no possibility to make it more secure. Sure, I use it online often, but I also use it for normal purchases too. It only takes one security leak to break it. Perhaps the fault lies with American Trans Air. Some kind of leak on their part. Who knows, I'm not going to worry about it.

Here's where it's nice to have a few credit cards. My main card is dead, I used my Fleet card for holiday purchases. I have another Mastercard from Citibank so it's probably not a good idea to use it. That leaves my AT&T Mastercard. I use my credit card to regulate my spending. Never let the charges get over $1000 and I'm ok. And it's worked this year. I did not increase my debt this year, even with the Gen Con trip.

But that was my only big expense. Actually, I did have to buy an iMac for Michael. Still, finances are under control and I have about $1000 reserve at the end of the year. Control the over $1000 expenses and I'm fine. Next year I'm moving some expenses to checking, so I have to keep my credit card at $750 or less. Harder and maybe too much to ask of me.