The Secret Service is charged with watching the president’s back, but who’s watching his wallet? When his credit card was declined last month while dining in New York, President Obama wondered if he had become a victim of identity theft.
“It turned out, I guess I don’t use it enough,” Obama said last week during a speech at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “They thought there was some fraud going on,” he said while announcing a government plan to tighten security for debit cards that transfer federal benefits like Social Security to millions of Americans. While at the CFPB headquarters, the president signed an executive order directed at securing consumer transactions and sensitive data, improving consumer identify theft remediation, and better securing personal information on federally run websites.
According to President Obama, he tried 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.
Later, Press Secretary Josh Earnest said he didn’t know the current status of the president’s personal credit card and joked that “it’s unclear whether he left a tip at the bottom of the executive order.”
Obama has been concerned about the state of his credit before. While in Austin this July, he ordered more than $300 worth of barbecue and realized he didn’t have enough cash. So he pulled out his credit card but asked trip director Marvin Nicholson if it was good before handing it over to the cashier. Nicholson assured Obama that the card would work, and apparently it did.
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,” the president said.
