porthole
Retired
This is a bit long winded, but it may save you some real grief.
Debit cards, credit cards and the Target hack
Do you know the difference? Have you been following the Target scandal?
Do you know your rights?
Do you really know what “Zero liability” means?
A Sunday in May 2013 I saw unrecognized charges on my checking account when looking online.
Went to the bank Monday morning, we saw a few things that were not valid. The debit cards were canceled immediately and the bank fraud procedures started. The 3 transactions were for $920.
My bank, Wells Fargo, has unwritten thresholds, under $1000 and under $2500.
Since this was a low fraud alert, the transactions were allowed to post to my account, and a provisional credit was issued immediately for the $920. A letter a few days later stating the facts and that it was under investigation and a letter 8-10 days later closing the case as resolved.
I was out zero $$$ and just one trip to my local branch.
In August my wife had an issue with a check at the local A&P for groceries. Same A&P we have been using with the same bank account since 1998. She had to keep getting her checks approved at the courtesy window. Since we were in “travel mode” at the time and not around much, it was not until the end of October we found out why.
A&P recently switched to an instant check reading system (those numbers on the bottom of your check are printed with magnetic ink, so they can be read like a credit-debit card). The company that processed the checks was denying the transactions, which took 2 trips back to A&P to find out that the transactions were not going through because our account was “blocked”.
Back to my bank. Turns out in August there was an “attempted account takeover” of our checking account, probably related to the debit card fraud back in May.
My bank, in my best interest decided to block my account, of course they forget to notify us!
And it was only blocked for checks that were being processed through 3rd party systems like Telecheck. Not for debit cards, personal checks, online debit or direct checking account withdrawals or payments etc.
At the banks recommendation we closed all our accounts and opened new accounts. What a royal pain in the butt. Direct deposits, mortgages, automatic payments, automatic withdrawals, online bill paying new checks, debit and credit cards. The bank moved all of our checking account money to the new account, blocked the old account completely and did not leave in the amount needed for the bill pays),
9 trips to the bank to get all that straightened out.
January 9th at 4:30pm I get an automated call from Wells Fargo fraud department. At 5:00pm I call back and find out that there are some “questionable” charges on my debit card. After a 20 minute conversation we cancel my debit card again and determine that there are $4900 in fraud charges against my debit card that took place from 4:09pm to 4:29pm, both stateside and in Europe.
At this time none of the transactions have posted, all are pending. The bank’s automated system automatically moves $3800 from an equity account to cover the pending transactions (2 transactions at a fee of $12.50 each). Everything from a $1.00 test charge in Brooklyn to pizza at a Dominos in Southern California, $1900 at an Apple store, cross country train ticket in Germany multiple online games (wargames and minecraft) in Cypress and Sweden, Best Buy etc etc. Every international charge has an international charge transaction fee.
Debit or credit here is where there is a real difference.
With the debit card the bank does nothing until the charges post to your account.
So I effectively have the $4800 showing out of my account.
Within a day about $2000 is effectively blocked and removed from my online view.
Another week and the bank gives me a “provisional credit” of $1500, couple more transactions get reversal, another day another provisional credit of $500.
Since there was now an extra $2000 in the account the bank decides, without my authorization, to reverse the two overdraft transfers that were made. That could have been a real issue with all my bill paying (through the banks website) had I not caught it.
As of today, January 25, most of the fraud has either, not posted, posted and reversed or provisional credits issued waiting for an outcome.
Because a dozen or so of the transactions were international there are exchange rate differences. Apparently the value of our dollar has dropped enough in the past week that in the international reversals I am now short about $26
A police report was filed, although I seriously doubt anything will come of that.
Continued
Debit cards, credit cards and the Target hack
Do you know the difference? Have you been following the Target scandal?
Do you know your rights?
Do you really know what “Zero liability” means?
A Sunday in May 2013 I saw unrecognized charges on my checking account when looking online.
Went to the bank Monday morning, we saw a few things that were not valid. The debit cards were canceled immediately and the bank fraud procedures started. The 3 transactions were for $920.
My bank, Wells Fargo, has unwritten thresholds, under $1000 and under $2500.
Since this was a low fraud alert, the transactions were allowed to post to my account, and a provisional credit was issued immediately for the $920. A letter a few days later stating the facts and that it was under investigation and a letter 8-10 days later closing the case as resolved.
I was out zero $$$ and just one trip to my local branch.
In August my wife had an issue with a check at the local A&P for groceries. Same A&P we have been using with the same bank account since 1998. She had to keep getting her checks approved at the courtesy window. Since we were in “travel mode” at the time and not around much, it was not until the end of October we found out why.
A&P recently switched to an instant check reading system (those numbers on the bottom of your check are printed with magnetic ink, so they can be read like a credit-debit card). The company that processed the checks was denying the transactions, which took 2 trips back to A&P to find out that the transactions were not going through because our account was “blocked”.
Back to my bank. Turns out in August there was an “attempted account takeover” of our checking account, probably related to the debit card fraud back in May.
My bank, in my best interest decided to block my account, of course they forget to notify us!
And it was only blocked for checks that were being processed through 3rd party systems like Telecheck. Not for debit cards, personal checks, online debit or direct checking account withdrawals or payments etc.
At the banks recommendation we closed all our accounts and opened new accounts. What a royal pain in the butt. Direct deposits, mortgages, automatic payments, automatic withdrawals, online bill paying new checks, debit and credit cards. The bank moved all of our checking account money to the new account, blocked the old account completely and did not leave in the amount needed for the bill pays),
9 trips to the bank to get all that straightened out.
January 9th at 4:30pm I get an automated call from Wells Fargo fraud department. At 5:00pm I call back and find out that there are some “questionable” charges on my debit card. After a 20 minute conversation we cancel my debit card again and determine that there are $4900 in fraud charges against my debit card that took place from 4:09pm to 4:29pm, both stateside and in Europe.
At this time none of the transactions have posted, all are pending. The bank’s automated system automatically moves $3800 from an equity account to cover the pending transactions (2 transactions at a fee of $12.50 each). Everything from a $1.00 test charge in Brooklyn to pizza at a Dominos in Southern California, $1900 at an Apple store, cross country train ticket in Germany multiple online games (wargames and minecraft) in Cypress and Sweden, Best Buy etc etc. Every international charge has an international charge transaction fee.
Debit or credit here is where there is a real difference.
With the debit card the bank does nothing until the charges post to your account.
So I effectively have the $4800 showing out of my account.
Within a day about $2000 is effectively blocked and removed from my online view.
Another week and the bank gives me a “provisional credit” of $1500, couple more transactions get reversal, another day another provisional credit of $500.
Since there was now an extra $2000 in the account the bank decides, without my authorization, to reverse the two overdraft transfers that were made. That could have been a real issue with all my bill paying (through the banks website) had I not caught it.
As of today, January 25, most of the fraud has either, not posted, posted and reversed or provisional credits issued waiting for an outcome.
Because a dozen or so of the transactions were international there are exchange rate differences. Apparently the value of our dollar has dropped enough in the past week that in the international reversals I am now short about $26
A police report was filed, although I seriously doubt anything will come of that.
Continued
