So yesterday we ran into the issue that one of our cards at a school was being declined due to lack of funds. Two things occurred here; first the card number we had on file did not match the one in the online system where we can monitor the cards, the second was that we show the card to have more than enough $$ left to process the transaction (about $650). My lovely and wonderful purchasing specialist jumped on the phone with our card processor to find out what was going on.
The story continues that the card processor had replaced the original card because they thought their might be fraud on the previous card. (No they had not informed us of this.) Also when they replaced the card they reduced the credit limit on the card by 80% also without notifying us. After almost 3 hours on the phone with both the card processor and our state account manager we found out that it wasn't our card that had fraud but that the processor in general had fraud at a business where this card had been used before and replaced the card on their own. The reduction of the credit limit was due to some other issues going one with a change in who reconciles the card here at our school district. Needless to say it took all this time to resolve the issue and get things in working order again. Oh and by the way, the replacement card whose number we could see on our processing screens was delivered to our office as the purchasing specialist was on the phone with our processor.
In the meantime I had a discussion with my new Executive Director of Finance about what was happening and it sparked a discussion on ensuring staff were not committing fraud and the existence of the P-card program in general. As a p-card program administrator I recognize the need for this ability and also the added administrative work added due to this program, however from a financial management point I can see the flip side of the argument in trying to reduce fraud. The use of this program is a trade off and its future is uncertain but I am willing to advocate for the end users and our entity.
Your thoughts?