I have an Amazon Store Card that I only use for stuff from Amazon. Since there was no need to the physical card, I got rid of it a long time ago. But now that I’ve moved, Amazon is requiring me to enter my card’s full number to confirm this payment method. Can I get the full number online somehow, or will I have to report the card lost and wait for a new one to be mailed to me? Will the latter option be tricky considering that I’ve moved and thus will have to have the card sent to a brand new address?

Two big issues here. First, the customer experience while trying to sign up is straight out of 1998. I spent about 45 minutes on hold this morning waiting for someone to help with a seemingly random interaction. Most credit cards are able to process an application online in minutes. Not the case for Synchrony.

But that’s not the real story: Synchrony wanted me to post a video of myself with my drivers license in it to a link provided by their call center. Think about that for a minute. It’s one thing for a credit reporting company to have a ton of my personal data and not adequately protect it (I’m looking at you, Equifax). It’s quite a different thing to hand over my likeness, my voice and my drivers license to some 3rd party call center with no idea about where that data goes or how well it is protected.

The alternative was to go to have a document notarized. By hand.

The 5% back would have been nice. But not for the impending disaster of an inevitable data breach. Skip it and find another card that will give you 3-5% without the risk.