We are having more and more customers presenting items to the bank which they claim are unauthorized. Most of these situations involve merchants offering free trials or samples. The majority of our customers admit that they didn't read their contract and didn't realize they only had so long before they starting getting a monthly charge. The customers admit to giving their debit card number and accepting terms and conditions.
Part of the definition I have of unauthorized electronic funds transfer includes that the consumer receives no benefit. In these situations the customer is receiving benefit - their free sample. So how can they later claim these are unauthorized? They accepted the conditions unto which they received their free sample. Why should the bank pay because they don't read the fine print?
Sorry for the ranting, just frustrated with Reg E. Any chance we can tell these customers, sorry, you did authorize when you clicked "i accept"?
I agree with BrendaC. Acceptance of the terms implies authorization of future activity disclosed in the terms. The issue is between the consumer and the merchant.