Comments on: A Real-Life Example of Debit Card Fraud

By: BG

BG — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:41:06 +0000

kfrogteacher) great story! FYI, I’ve never seen a ‘hold’ on my Bank of America visa-debit card (after debit clearing) in the 10 years I’ve used it. I’ve never seen a ‘Pending’ (hold) for more than the original purchase price either (restaurants included). Just goes to show that not all Credit Unions are great, and BofA isn’t as evil as a lot of people want to think.

By: kfrogteacher

kfrogteacher — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:27:33 +0000

I’ve had my sare of problems with debit cards! Listen to this – We recieved a debit Visa when we opened an account with our local credit union. they also gave us overdraft protection, which we thought was great -at the time. When we got our bank statement it showed we were charged overdraft fees when according to the statement we had the money in our account to cover the charges. We then went to our banker to correct what we assumed was a mistake. We were told that, ” this is the electronic age and our system is set up to hold the amount you use to ensure that is is there to pay for what you purchased.” We agreed and said we unterstood that. He went on to say,” Sometimes the money is put on hold 2-3 days after the puchase has been made.” I then asked,”So, when the purchase clears the hold is dropped – right?” Our banker then smiled and told us, ” Well our system can still hold for 2-3 days beyond your debt clearing your account.” I wanted to understand this; so I repeated,” You mean this bank holds the amount you debit when you make a purchase, then after the money clears it still hold the already credited money as a hold for another 2-3 days, so if I have another transitaction that put me under my balance because of a hold not because I don’t have the money in my account you then use that fictious hold as reason for charging my account with overdraft fees that I didn’t really incur?” Our banker then said,” remember this is an electronic age and this is how our credit union works, if I can help you -please let me know.” We no longer bank there!

By: Terri Cyrgalis

Terri Cyrgalis — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:41:06 +0000

I got gas at Sam’s club yesterday they put through two charges on my card, one for the amount I spent $29.98 and another for $100, the transaction has completed but they still have the $100 pending and have held that money out of my account making it unavailable to me. I will never buy gas there again. Chevron is also guilty of this and charges $75 without notifying you that they are doing so, this should be against the law. I have had them do this both as a credit or a debit.

By: Crediteria.com

Crediteria.com — Sun, 13 May 2007 07:47:34 +0000

Given all the problems in the world relating to identity theft, I have taken my handling of all transactions (most anyway) back to the point of:

Go to the bank
Withdraw cash
Spend cash only

This is achieving 2 things for me

1. I spend a heck of a lot less
2. I don’t worry about folks on the dark side getting my banking information

OK, I don’t worry about it as much :- )

By: Moneymonk

Moneymonk — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:30:37 +0000

It is not because of having a debit card. The problem is with the company that issued the debit card.

His bank did not handle the matter correctly. The have the power to correct it. They just chose to not do it and give him the roundaround

By: Clever Dude

Clever Dude — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:27:21 +0000

Hey, thanks for the repost! Yeah, I’m still wondering how they got my debit card number.