Credit Card Games



Credit card transactions are relatively simple operations. Money goes from one point to the other. A payment for goods goes from the buyer to the seller, the product is received, and sometimes a refund goes from the seller to the buyer.

Unfortunately, some people want it complicated. Most companies don't have the luxury of including two different payment methods on a single order (such as paying half with a Visa, half with AMEX), but these people want it that way. It's not like a gift card where you can just calculate the balance and charge the other one. The customer has other pending transactions on that same card. Do you charge the Visa or the AMEX first? Will they overdraft if you choose the AMEX for the large part of the purchase and put the remainder on the Visa? What is the remainder anyway? How are we supposed to know how much their account can handle? How are we supposed to know which one is a Visa gift card?

And then the requests get more complicated. A guy uses his sister's credit card to make a purchase, which causes her account to become overdrawn. But the purchase goes through, and he returns an item for a refund. Simple enough, but then he asks to have the refund that we just put on his sister's card placed on a different credit card and for a new exchange order to be placed. So we'd have to deduct the refund from his sister's account, put it on his credit card, and immediately withdraw it to use on a new order. Way to turn an ordinary business transaction into an Olympic sport!