Little Problems, Annoying As Mites

So my fucking credit card got hacked.

Despite what credit card companies tell you when they're trying to sell you identity theft insurance, this is not such a huge deal.  If you're keeping an eye on your balance, as I always do, you will notice when thing have been charged to your card that you have not charged -- and they're usually very odd charges anyway.  (In this case, enormous sums to bizarre online dating services, as well as hundreds of dollars to Netflix.)

If this happens, you just contact the credit card company and say, whoa, not mine, and they deal with it (after talking to you at length -- but their algorithms are good, they can usually tell what's not yours and don't give you a lot of trouble).

Then, though, they cancel that card.

And, since like most Americans you are paying many of your bills via that credit card -- car insurance, mobile phone, water bill, whatever, Kiva donations -- now you have to go through your entire online life and change your payment information on all those sites.

Some sites are very well run, and it's easy enough to figure out how the change the payment information.

Some, though, good shit.  For instance, Net10.  Who the fuck designed Net10's site?  Apparently it is unpossible to access or change your payment information without contacting Net10 via telephone.  You have to call in, wait on the line for about 30 minutes, and then talk to someone (an outsourced to India someone, to judge by the difficulty this person has in understanding my request) who then refers you up the line (ten more minutes on hold) to someone who is apparently in Texas (judging by the accent) who then takes another ten or fifteen minutes to change the credit card number, and who then tries to sell me phone insurance and an upgrade to more minutes.

Compare this to Geico: two minutes, online, done.

Fuck you, Net10.

And I still haven't dealt with the kid's phone.  Argh.