President Obama took the First Lady out to dine while he was here in New York for meetings at the United Nations, but when he offered his card to pay for the meal, the charge was declined by his financial institution, causing the president to think he was the victim of identity theft.
“It turned out, I guess I don’t use it enough,” Obama said Friday at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“They thought there was some fraud going on,” he said, chatting while announcing a government plan to tighten security for debit cards that transfer federal benefits like Social Security to millions of Americans.
“I was trying to explain to the waitress ‘No, I really think that I’ve been paying my bills.'”
Fortunately first lady Michelle Obama was able to whip out a credit card they could use.
Identity theft is a growing problem and an estimated 100 million people have been affected by security breaches in the past year at retailers like Target and Home Depot.
“Even I’m affected by this,” he said.
Employees at Estela, the New York restaurant where Obama dined on Sept. 24 while attending the U.N. General Assembly, said they couldn’t discuss the credit card issue.
