Customers see erroneous credit card charges of $23 quadrillion

07.18.09
By Lewis Green

Credit card debt has gotten out of control for many Americans, but recent stories in the news show just how bad things have gotten as people in two separate instances were charged more than $23 quadrillion for purchases.

Although many states have placed heavy taxes on cigarettes, a Manchester, New Hampshire man recently got the shock of his life when his bank account showed he had been charged more than $23 quadrillion (that's 23 with 15 zeros after it), for the pack of smokes.

While the bank later fixed the transaction mistake - along with the $15 overdraft fee he had been charged - this is not the only exorbitant charge that has happened recently.

News reports also indicate that a Texas man using a prepaid credit card was mistakenly charged the same amount for a meal at a restaurant owned by Wolfgang Puck.

Both of the errors occurred on the consumers' Visa Buxx credit card, a problem Visa attributed to a "technical glitch" which it said affected less than 13,000 transactions.

Earlier this year a Washington man was charged more than $81 billion after using his PayPal credit card to fill his 1994 Chevy Camaro with $26 in gas.

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Some consumers were recently charged $23,000,000,000,000,000 for purchases of cigarettes and dinner