Business Insider reports that President Obama says he had his credit card declined at a New York City restaurant.
Fortunately, the President said the First Lady had her card. The President suggested that the card had not been used recently, so the fraud detection team at the bank may have thought it was a suspicious transaction.
Here are our own 3 theories…
1. The card developed artificial intelligence and thought it was a member of the U.S. House Of Representatives. So, of course, the card would have to decline anything the President wants to do.
2. The card was issued by one of those banks who things that outright rejecting a card is a good customer service policy, rather than doing something less extreme, like say, having the restaurant attempt to verify the user’s identity. Which in this case ought to have been pretty easy to verify since it was the President of the United States. If someone comes into the restaurant who looks like the President, with someone who looks like the First Lady, along with a team of secret service agents with identification, and tries to buy a meal (as opposed to a big-ticket item, like the deed to the restaurant), it probably is the President.
3. Banks who issued credit to anybody in 2007 and had to be bailed out, are still not exactly sure who they are issuing credit to. We can see how it may be hard to detect fraud when you may be processing countless applications claiming to be the President of the United States every day.
