I have a prepaid credit card from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).  I am grateful to the CIBC because they do not have service charges or maintenance fees on their prepaid credit cards.  I can have a five-dollar balance on my prepaid card and not have to worry about service charges and maintenance fees eating my money.

YAY CIBC!

I cannot get into debt trouble with a prepaid credit card.  Also, I do not have to worry about bandits using my card.  I keep a low balance in my account.

If a book costs $20.00, I will load $25.00 into my prepaid credit card account.  That way, there is only a five-dollar balance once the book company debits my credit card.  What can a bandit do with five dollars?  Buy a personality?

I found out today that this system does not work with Indigo Books.  They have a complicated credit-card billing system.

When you use a credit card to order a book from Indigo, they debit your card.  They store the payment somewhere and do not keep it like other bookstores.

Who knows where they hold your payment?  The Twilight Zone?  Rod Serling’s armpit?  Dan Creed’s Chevy Town in Buffalo, New York?  Who knows?

Once Indigo ships the book, they debit your credit card again for the price of the book.  They do not use the money they are holding and credit your account with this payment after shipping the book.

I ordered The Art of War on September 18th.  (The Art of War is a manual on marriage.)  Indigo debited my prepaid credit card and held the money somewhere.

On September 24th, Indigo shipped the book and attempted to debit my credit card account again, but I had insufficient funds in the account.  Why?  Because I ALREADY PAID FOR THE DAMN BOOK ON SEPTEMBER 18th.

Indigo sent me an email to contact their billing department because of the payment problem.  Before contacting Indigo’s billing department, I loaded the book’s price on my credit card.  While I was on the phone with Indigo’s billing department, they took the payment from my credit card account.  They also said they did not know WHY Indigo holds the first payment and does not keep it.

Indigo’s credit card billing system is only a problem for prepaid credit cards when insufficient funds are in the account.

If I order a book from Indigo again, I will make sure there is double the book price in the account.  That way, Indigo can get its jollies debiting my account twice and then returning the first payment to me after they ship the book.