Duplicate Charges on ATM

[lma]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

We bank with Bank of America. My husband is out of state and he stopped at a rest area and made a $30 purchase using our debit card. The clerk said it was denied. My husband called me immediately and I checked and told him that there were more than sufficient funds. The clerk put it through again several times and it was always denied. I checked the account and found that every time the clerk put the transaction through, it paid. He put it through 10 times and was paid $300. My husband went back and talked to the clerk and he showed my husband all the denied receipts. Also, my husband tried to take out funds from the atm machine and was denied! He tried using it on several of our accounts. There is definately no problem on our end because we have funds available. Hopefully, my debit card will work tomorrow so I could wire him funds.

Does Bank of America have any liability in this? Isn't there any law protecting the consumer from something like this? It scares me that I cannot always depend on getting money out when I need it especially in an emergency or a case like this where my husband is out of state.

Thanks for any help.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[wyett717]

What did Bank of America say when you called Customer Service?

 

[lma]

I spoke to them this morning. Apparently, they "locked" my husband's card because we never notified them that he would be travelling. This made me angry because in December/January, we travelled out of state by car as well and of course used our debit card for all transactions and never had a problem. Personally, I think something is up. I don't think that they can randomly "lock" a card because of a possiblity of it being stolen especially if they never tried to contact us.

I have to put in a dispute on Tuesday for the $300 in charges. Hopefully that won't be such a nightmare.

I still say there must be some sort of protection for the consumer to prevent cases like this.

 

[Antigone*]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

We bank with Bank of America. My husband is out of state and he stopped at a rest area and made a $30 purchase using our debit card. The clerk said it was denied. My husband called me immediately and I checked and told him that there were more than sufficient funds. The clerk put it through again several times and it was always denied. I checked the account and found that every time the clerk put the transaction through, it paid. He put it through 10 times and was paid $300. My husband went back and talked to the clerk and he showed my husband all the denied receipts. Also, my husband tried to take out funds from the atm machine and was denied! He tried using it on several of our accounts. There is definately no problem on our end because we have funds available. Hopefully, my debit card will work tomorrow so I could wire him funds.

Does Bank of America have any liability in this? Isn't there any law protecting the consumer from something like this? It scares me that I cannot always depend on getting money out when I need it especially in an emergency or a case like this where my husband is out of state.

Thanks for any help.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

Wyett is right, your first call needs to be to customer service. Customer service will ask you to wait untill all the transactions have posted. Once they have posted you will be able to file a fraud claim. Please make sure to ask that all NSF fees and DAYS (very important, most people don't know about NSF days) be reversed as well.

One reason you couldn't get access to the money is that once the bank saw the multiple charges to that card, they automtically suspected fraud and blocked the card.

You want to place blame on the bank here and that seem pretty ridiculous to me. In blocking your card, the bank is actually protecting you. One other suggestion. Let the bank you that your husband is traveling. They will place a code on the system telling the ATM network and fraud montitoring that this activity is not fraud. When a bank sees activity that is not near "home", they are more prone to act and block the card. A simple phone call to the bank will solve that.

 

[lma]

I agree with you, as much as I would love to place the blame on the bank, I really shouldn't. But, they have our phone numbers (I always make sure the bank, credit card, etc. have our correct contact info), they could have called to confirm rather than locking it, especially on a Saturday night when customer service is closed. Thank goodness I was able to resolve it early this morning when telephone banking opened.

I've been banking with Bank of America since they were United Jersey and this has never happened before. Hense the reason for the shock and initial anger. Like I said earlier, when I spoke to the gentleman at the bank, I asked him why this didn't happen during our last trip a month ago. He couldn't answer it.

FYI, the gentleman said that the reason they stopped it last night was because there were several charges at "gas stations". My husband stopped at truck stops to eat, make purchases, etc. But since there were all listed under gas stations, they suspected fraud. He did say that when cards are stolen, almost all of the time they are used at gas stations. Makes sense.

A hard lesson learned. All is well that ends well.

As always, thanks for the help.

 

[wyett717]

Because there is SO much fraud out there, it's becoming more common that banks are locking accounts when they notice unusual activity. It stinks and is a major inconvenience to the customer, but they are looking out for your best interest (and their's from a liability standpoint). My father-in-law visited us at Christmas time, and had the same problem. Easy fix, but certainly a nuisance.