Wal-Mart keeps track of your credit/debit card number. I’m sure many people would be very much saying “Duh!” at this “revelation”. Normally I would too, but I had an experience that scares me:

I bought a pair of pants at WM. I’m too fat for them so I took them back the next day. My normal expectation is that they return them, I sign my name, and then slide my card to capture it’s information and have the money refunded to my account. Unfortunately, WM still had my information, and had it attached to that transaction. The girl just had to punch a button to refund the money to my debit/credit card.

This could be bad on SO many levels. How easily could fraud be done using this system? All one has to do is have a friend behind the service desk and bring back a receipt to have the friend refund money to my account. Better yet, just give the receipt to the friend and have them refund the money since the card isn’t necessary.

Less than a year ago, I believe, the big, evil blue charged a multitude of their customers twice on their debit/credit cards due to an “accounting error”. Frankly, I’d rather they not keep my information so readily available given that history.

I still despise the company that can single-handedly shut down the United States on a whim, but this is just another tick against them from my brain.

EDIT: Even though they had my number SAVED in their system, it actually took WM two full days to get this money posted back to my account. Surprising it takes them so long to return it, but it is withdrawn from my account before I get home from the store.