Of course they have to “investigate”! :rolleyes: What do you want your bank to do- agree to everything some dude calling in says is you? “Hey cancel my card, send me a new one, and oh yeah, some cash from my savings too- and a cash advance on my credit card” :dubious:
If they did everything you want (because of course- you know that you’re you!) rigth then&there over the phone, we’d all be getting ripped off on a monthly basis. Yes, they have to ivestigate- and that’s a GOOD thing.
Next- banks get scammed too you know, and by dudes claimed they have been ripped off.
So- maybe they have to take a few days or so, to make sure everything’s Kosher. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
So go ahead- quit and go to a bank with lower security standards… :rolleyes:
Your credit union may not have fraud protection, but my bank does. I am not liable if my card is stolen as long as it’s used as a credit card That means that the thief either used it online, or payed for something and signed a receipt. If he stole it and somehow got my PIN and entered that instead of signing, then I might be liable, since it’s assumed a thief couldn’t know my PIN and therefore I must have given it to him, or something.
And as to how online payments work…the FUCK? Who’s dumbass idea was that? I think I might email someone at my bank and ask why it takes so long. The worst part is that I used to have a different bank, where onlione payments would get there in two (maybe three) business days, but it was bought out by another bank, and now it’s five or six.
Yeticus, I did use my check card at an AM/PM Arco along I-15 down in Apple Valley/Victorville back over Labor Day weekend, but I used it inside because the pump didn’t have card swipes. Hmmm… interesting coincidence? perhaps.
Yes, I expect them to investigate the charges, but why should I have to put my life on hold, not be able to pay my bills, have to call my creditors to tell them my payments will be late, be treated by the bank like I am the one responsible for the mess.
With the fraudulent charges, the bank fees causing the negative balance that will eat up my paycheck on Friday, that’s a really big inconveinience to me. I didn’t need my paycheck anyway :rolleyes:
I went to the bank that Monday morning to fill the papers out. I acted like a rational grown up. I wasn’t doing all of this over the phone. They could at least credit my account the stolen money, do their investigation and so forth. If it turned out I was somehow shopping in Hong Kong and staying at a 400$ per night hotel there, then yeah they should have every right to rescind that credit to my account. For example, BoA has that policy.
By the way… I am a chick, not a dude.
The bank is not a big box bank, and not a credit union. It is a state bank and I have had my accounts there for nearly 10 years. I have always been a good banking customer. Never had an overdraft, never filed any claims prior to this. I even kept a decent balance in my account even while I was unemployed for six soild months. I am never late with my bills and have a fabulous credit score. I think I deserve better treatment than what I am getting.
I do not give anyone access to debit my banks account.
I do not use debit cards.
I do use credit cads and keep them paid down.
I shred all finical stuff or info going into trash.
I have some bills paid from the bank … I keep adding them but I am still in the red on cost verse stamps because of how few I actually do.
I do this because we are gone enough and are out in the country but do have a high drive by rate of out of town and out of state people.
I also carry a PO box so I can have some things sent to an inside and protected place. ( But it is 25 miles away and I do not go but maybe every 10 days. )
We live on a fixed income but still I think good protection and alternative choices are worth some cost.
There’s a trap, there. Your debit card being used “as a credit card” is an illusion. It is not a credit card. You are able to use it like a plastic check anywhere you see the Visa symbol, but that’s it. And I have found with debit cards that if I simply push the “credit” button on the machine instead of “debit” I don’t have to enter a PIN, even though it’s a debit card! I often chose that option to save 10 seconds in the checkout line.
And don’t even get me started on how banks treat my money. If I write a check, it clears electronically the same day it is presented. But if I deposit a check, there is a 5 day hold on the funds until it “clears.” Um, fuckers? It clears electronically the same day it is presented. The bank prefers to use your money for several days before giving you access to it.
Actually, there is a difference in the way transactions are processed when you use your debit card in debit or credit mode.
If you use it as a “debit” card, you are required to enter your PIN into a touchpad device and the money is taken out of your account instantly. If you use it as a “credit” card (either by choosing that option or by using it at an establishment not set up for debit transactions) you are (usually) required to sign a receipt, and the charge is processed through the normal credit card channels. Even though it still comes out of your checking account, it may take several days to get there. There is also a difference in the fees charged to the merchant for debit vs. credit charges IIRC.
Isn’t that what he was saying? As long as the thief uses that ‘credit’ option he is not liable. The only way he would be liable is if the thief somehow got access to his PIN. My debit card works the same way, I am fully aware it makes no difference to me if I choose ‘debit’ or ‘credit’ at checkout, but presumably someone who stole my card would always choose ‘credit’ since they don’t know my PIN. That doesn’t mean it would be any harder for the thief to use, just that I would not have to pay for it, just like a credit card.
Probably a coincidence…it seems that most of the scamming happened in the first week of October. But…maybe the scammers are now in Vegas? Did you call the police and file a report? You definitely should if you haven’t. You might learn that you weren’t the only one, or may found out where you were scammed.
I can actually see the Arco station at the I-15 and D Street/Hwy 18 Exit from my house, but I think the scamming happened at the Arco at I-15 and Main St. in Hesperia.
I’m confused on the debit card thing. Here in Canada, a debit card is one you have a PIN number for. But I’ve never heard of it having a credit option. The only way you can use it is to go to an ATM and withdraw funds from either your Chequing or Savings account or to use a debit machine in a store - you are prompted for your PIN, and asked if you want to pay from Chequings or Savings. How do you use the credit option? We have overdrafts here - so if the bank grants you an overdraft, you can spend a certain amount of money past what you actually have in your account, which I guess is kind of like credit.
In the US, it’s common for a debit card to have a Visa or Mastercard affiliation. It can be used as a credit card (requiring signature) or a debit card (requiring PIN), as well as an ATM card (with PIN).
I haven’t used an Arco station here, but I do buy gas with my checkcard on occasion. I probably should file a police report. Though I think it might be futile since I have no idea where the initial actual loss of my information occurred.
I have a better one. The bank fucked me out of over $800 through automatic transfers.
I had a savings account linked to my checking account with a monthly tranfer for $50 from checking to savings set up. I moved to Japan and left the account open; I thought I might need it later. About a year later, I came back to the US. I checked with the bank to see if my last check from my former job had been deposited and after being made to wait around for 20 minutes while some “issue” was dealt with, I was informed that I not only did not have any money in the account, I actually owed the bank money and the account had gone into collections.
They wanted me to pay them something like $230 when I should have had a positive balance of around $600 in the account. When I asked how this could have happened, I was told that it was due to the automatic transfer. Fifty dollars a month was transferred from my checking to savings. Eventually, the checking account was all transferred over to the savings account. But, the transfers didn’t stop. When the transfer failed, I was hit with a service fee, one that increased every time the transfer failed from lack of funds. The first iteration was for $18, increasing to $36 per instance after the third time, when the system stopped trying. That’s 18+27+36= $74 every month in extra service charges from the time my checking account went negative until they sent it to collections.
No, they couldn’t do anything about it in-house; it had already been sent to collections. No, I couldn’t dispute it because I had not responded to any of the notices before it was sent to collections. I was told that I had no recourse except to pay the collection agency unless I wanted to have the account on my credit report. Of course I didn’t have much of a choice, only having about a week and a half to take care of it before I had to come back to Japan. Realistically, here was no way I could successfully dispute it. The bastards.
They didn’t admit that they had made an error that had wiped out the money in my account and made me into a debtor through an absolutely asinine procedure in their automatic accounting. I was made to feel like I was in the wrong for not having taken care of the problem. Most people assume that when they have a positive balance in their bank account, more than enough money to pay for normal service fees, they will still have most of that money sitting in the bank when they come back. Banks are, after all, supposed to hold your money in trust for you. That’s part of the reason you use them instead of keeping your cash in a coffee can buried in your back yard. Thanks for the lesson in legal theft, shitheads.
Unless you canceled the automatic transfer, I don’t see how you can blame the bank that they drained your checking account after a year. That’s pretty much what you directed them to do. They’re not mind readers.
I do think that automatic transfers should simply be suspended if there are insufficient funds in the account instead of allowing them to pile on multiple fees. However, they did try to get ahold of you. Did you expect them to track you down halfway across the world? I really do think you share some of the blame here.
First of all, if they transferred the money to a savings account, you STILL have the money that was automatically transferred sitting in your savings account. The only thing you’re out are the service charges, which are admittedly exorbitant.
Secondly, your math simply doesn’t add up here. If you had automatic withdrawals of $50 per month, and you thought you’d return to find $600 in the account, then you have sufficient funds to cover at least 12 months of automatic withdrawals, even longer if your last paycheck was deposited in your checking account.
Yet you say that you bounced 3 months worth before it was sent to collections. A+B isn’t equalling C here.
I am the first one to hop on the “Banks suck” bandwagon, because I think they do all they can to hit people with service fees, but it sounds like you didn’t need the bank to screw you. You did a fairly good job of it all on your own.
File a report in Vegas first. The cops might know which places have been scammed and then ask you if you frequent those places. If the Vegas cops know little or nothing about this type of fraud occurring recently, then try filing a report with the town where you purchased your gas down here in the high desert…they will definitely know whether or not if you were actually a victim here if you have the bill showing the time, date and location that you used your card. If you make the effort, then the bank might also make a better effort to assist you on returning your stolen funds…IMHO.
Doing nothing will only hurt other debit card users in the future, and embolden the criminals.
PunditLisa, if you think that getting hit with those kinds of service charges for transferring your own money from one of your accounts to another is fair or reasonable then I guess we really don’t have anything to talk about. I never anticipated what would happen and I was in contact with the bank several times to manage other aspects of the account. No one informed me of what was happening in the background. My post was getting long enough already, so I cut out some details. It adds up if I include the other information.
I’m not irresponsible and I’m not bad at math. The bank fucked me.
