Watch Those Credit/Debit Cards

Crowe wrote:
I learned a hard lesson that 'debit' cards do not have the same safety net a 'credit' card has to stop fraud.

Not true. It depends on the bank. Last year when we went to Stowe for the weekend I tried to buy something and my card was refused. I called the bank to see what was up at the same time they were trying to call me. There were charges out of the area so they immediately froze my card and I wasn't liable for one cent. Even if it's caught after the fact I am not liable. I know it's a pain in the gizzard, but you might want to switch banks.

Yes what you said is true. When I hit the road full time using the 'debit' card they called me immediately that my card was being used across 3 state lines!!! LOL it was just me on the road RV'ing, and I forgot to call and tell them.

BUT When the scammer uses it as an authorized 'automatic' debit its a whole nuther issue as far as the bank was concerned.

We give many of our utilities etc authorization to 'auto' debit our account. There are no safety flags as it sits right now to alert a bank of an unauthorized auto debit because they do NOT receive any form of authorization from the card holder regarding an automatic debit. They just honor all automatic debits coming in.:R:R

I made that bank rep sit there and watch my account for 5 minutes and asked her if she really really thought I would EVER APPROVE an automatic debit to occur every 5 minutes. It was then and ONLY then that they put a stop on it.

The ONLY reason I got my money back was I have a very large account with them. IMHO a person with just one checking account would never have gotten their money back.

Nor would they have refunded me my money had the scammer only auto debited it just once. The ONLY reason I got my money back was because of the obvious 'repetitive action of the automatic debit in the same amount.

I not only closed that particular account. But because my life savings was also in that bank I closed ALL my accounts. If I was going to continue full timing with a sane piece of mind that that idiot scammer that knew how to work an automatic debit didn't have access to anything else.

There is a giant security hole in how banks handle automatic debits. You won't know and they won't alert you when it happens because it looks like a normal bill paying automatic debit. I just happened to be looking at my accounts that day on line.

If you think about it anyone you give authorization to use your debit card for an automatic debit to pay anything? There is nothing preventing them from using it more than once a month.

GoDaddy website host took my debit card I used to pay for my website and on their own with OUT my permission set it up as an automatic debit card payment. Would not have seen that either had I not clicked the wrong button and it took me to my account page. :R