BIRD TALK

My wife and I have had SEARS MasterCard accounts since 2012. We did in excess of $120,000.00 in that time and never defaulted on a payment. citi SHOPYOURWAY advised to use area code 00000 when using our new card! We had a disaster on a recent trip. The card would not be accepted. Warn members to be careful.
Basil Kirk
Fredericton, NB

Response :
Ed.: It’s probably time to get a new card as Sears appears to be bankrupt, although they do own lots of property. This is a very common problem with many cards. The big computers in the sky are looking to confirm your identity by comparing your zip code to your billing address as a safety feature. So, if you have a U.S. card and it is billed to a U.S. address, just put in that zip code and it should work. If you have a Canadian card, which you do, the computer still looks for that billing zip code. Every card is different and many will accept the “00000” as a zip code. My guess is that the computer recognizes you as a foreigner and lets you proceed. Another scheme that seems to work is to use the three numbers in your Canadian postal code and then add two “0’s”. So, for our postal code, which is M3B 2T5, you would enter 32500. This has worked many times for us, especially at the gas pumps. One small wrinkle is that you must use the card’s billing address. We initially used our home address, which did not work; once, we used our office postal code, however, and it did work. I guess you now know where our credit card bills are sent.