I left the house this morning in a good mood. My to-do list for the day was relatively short and tomorrow morning I would be leaving for the NCAA Frozen Four Hockey Tournament in Denver.

First stop - Holiday Gas station for a steaming hot cup of Columbian coffee. Life is good.

Second stop - The ATM machine where I bank to withdraw some money from my PayPal account using my PayPal debit card. As soon as I’d entered the amount and pushed the enter key, my card was immediately spit out and the screen read “Card not accepted. Please contact your financial institution.” A second attempt produced the same results.

A phone call to PayPal produced a twenty-minute wait on hold after which a pleasant customer service rep told me that my PayPal debit card, along with many others, had been canceled because the card number had likely been compromised due to a security breach at a merchant I had used it at. I was able to have a new card issued right over the phone, but was told it would probably be 7 to 10 business days before I would receive it.

When I got home I dug through all the spam I’d deleted when reading my email this morning, and there was the email from PayPal that said in part:

“We have been informed that your PayPal Debit Card number may have been obtained by an unauthorized party as a result of a security breach at a merchant where your debit card was used to make a purchase. The security of your PayPal account information was not compromised in connection with this event. To help ensure your security, we have taken the proactive step of canceling your PayPal Debit Card.”

The plus side to all of this is that I now know exactly how many eBay related services are automatically debited from my PayPal account each month, how many of them are directly tied to my debit card, and which of those are due to be debited in the next 7 to 10 days.

I also am starting to realize just how much I actually use it on a regular basis. For now though, I’m living in a cash economy.

Photography by Zest-pk.

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