They Mistook My Credit for Debt and Cancelled Me Anyway

SWANK ENTRY NO. 049

Filed Under: Financial Injustice, Algorithmic Arrogance, and the Dangers of Digital Delusion

It began with a dispute. Several, in fact. Charges I did not authorise appeared on my Apple Card—so I disputed them, as any rational account-holder with a sense of boundaries and a spreadsheet would do.

The result? A $500 credit, issued by Apple/Goldman Sachs, which should have been the end of the story.

But no. This is capitalism with a concussion.

I. The Algorithm That Couldn’t Count

Roughly a week after the credit hit my account, I received an email. Not to congratulate me on my moral and mathematical triumph. Not to thank me for protecting my own finances. But to tell me—bizarrely, comically, incorrectly—that my account was being closed due to a $500 debt.

Yes, you read that correctly.

The $500 credit was somehow mistaken for a $500 debt.

They confused “+500” with “–500.”

I’m not sure if it was a glitch, a mislabelled field, or the ghost of Steve Jobs seeking revenge—but the damage was done.

II. Customer Service, or Customer Shrug

Naturally, I contacted support. I expected a prompt correction.

Instead, I was told there was “nothing they could do.”

Nothing? Not even subtract from a number correctly?

I had to sit in silence while a tech-finance hydra told me that their mistake was permanent. My card was closed. My record was marked. My usefulness to their empire had expired.

III. The Bigger Picture (a.k.a. The Irony of the Apple Ecosystem)

Let’s pause and reflect.

A trillion-dollar tech company, paired with a storied investment bank, canceled my account over a fake debt caused by their own miscalculation.

They coded a system that can detect face IDs and predict spending trends—but it can’t distinguish a credit from a debt. And then refuses to fix it.

This isn’t just an error. This is financial gaslighting in Helvetica Neue.

IV. Summary for the Discerning Reader

1. I disputed fraudulent charges
2. I was issued a credit
3. They interpreted that credit as debt
4. They closed my account
5. I was told it couldn’t be undone
6. No apology. No reversal. No logic.

Filed By:

Polly Chromatic

(Account-holder. Truth-teller. Victim of numerical sabotage.)

SWANK TAGS:

#CancelledByCredit

#MathIsHardApparently

#AppleCoreRot

#StatisticallyInsulting

#FinanceWithFiction

#ThisIsWhyWeDocument

#LetThemEatCreditScores