Debit Card Protection = Credit Card Protection
It’s been a while since I’ve touted the virtues of using debit cards over credit cards.07
Patrick from Money Cash Life wrote a post about having his debit card number stolen and how easily the problem was rectified by his bank. It sucks to be the victim of fraud, but Patrick got in and out of it fairly quickly and cleanly. The bottom of his post links to another, more harrowing experience by Glblguy from Gather Little By Little.
The damage was much greater, to the tune of $877.35, which includes non-suficient fund fees assessed by his bank. To add insult to injury this happened when he was on vacation with his family, and he only found out something was amiss when he checked his balance to find it was $300 in the hole. He immediately called his bank and this is what happened:
The bank’s fraud department noticed [the criminal] activity pretty quickly once I called and blocked the card and opened a fraud case. They even provisionally credited me for the transactions that had cleared so far so I would have some money.
His family’s trouble didn’t end there. After returning home, the fun continued:
I checked online banking and realized further transactions had cleared on our account along with a ton of overdraft fees. I again called the bank’s fraud department and they added the additional transactions to the case and credited me the funds along with refunding the overdraft fees.
To say their experience was miserable would be an understatement, but that’s not what I’m writing this post about. What I want to draw attention to is how their bank responded.
One of the reasons people hold onto for using credit cards over debit cards is that if their credit card is lost or stolen and used fraudulently, they don’t lose any money. These two stories prove that the same thing applies with debit cards. And if your bank doesn’t offer the same level of protection, then you should seriously consider switching to a bank that does.
What about you? Have you ever been at the business end of fraudulent activity? How did you bank respond?
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Shan is the author and founder of The Apostle of the Turtle.
It’s always important to understand the protection your bank offers for debit cards and other possible instances of fraud. Some banks do more than others. Thanks for sharing my story.
Have a story… do I ever!
Someone made a copy (a physical copy) of my debit card after I used it in an ATM on a cruise ship. When I got back home, my debit card didn’t work, and I got online to look at my account only to find out that 90% of the small amount of funds in my account had been spent at a Chili’s in Englewood, CA. How someone spends that much at Chili’s, I don’t know.
But I digress. What little money WAS in my account was frozen so the bank could investigate the fraud. Being a 21st century American, I had ZERO cash, and now, a very small amount of money I could not even access. So, for a week, I had to have someone Western Union me some cash. After 10 days and filling out a lot of paperwork, I got 100% of my money back.
Yes, it was a PITA, but I would imagine (speculation only since I’ve never had a credit card) that credit card holders would have to wait a reasonable period before getting their money back as well.