[chuckw951]

For the past couple of days I've been doing my Christmas shopping online.

I went to Walmart.com to buy a gift card for my mother-in-law. As the transaction was processing, I was required to sign up for something called "Verified by Visa" for "extra security" for my online purchases. I was asked to create a user name and password and then the transaction went through just fine.

Next I went to Home Depot.com to buy a gift card for a buddy of mine. The transaction seemed to go through OK. However 20 minutes later I received a message stating that there was a problem with my credit card, the transaction was cancelled and that I should call my bank. The card is a debit card issued by Suntrust.com. Suntrust reported that the transaction was authorized by not processed. Suntrust also reported that my card was active and not on hold or anything. I logged onto to the Suntrust page and cancelled "Verified by Visa."

After that I visited other websites and bought other items. And subsequently I've used my card to buy cash, groceries, etc. without incident.

Today I received a call from Tiffany's (jewelry), they also had a problem with the card. I verified the last four digits of the card and they tried again. They haven't called back so I'm assuming the transaction went through this time.

I contacted "verified by Visa" about this problem. They responded by saying:

"With regard to merchant participation, you will be asked for your Verified by Visa password only when you shop at participating merchants. If the merchant is not yet participating in Verified by Visa, you will not be asked for a password and you can continue to shop as you do today."

Well that was not my experience. Thought I would post this info in case others run into the same problem.