From time to time we have members call to have the daily limits raised temporarily (our current limits are $600 w/d and $1200 POS). I’m just wandering what others do in this situation?

We temporarily raise them, then lower them back.

what are your guidelines... Can anyone make the decision to allow it? How much is the max? Do you allow it to be raised for the weekend?

Typically they call when they are in the store making a large purchase and are declined. Once we confirm identity we raise to allow the charge to go through, then lower back down immediately. There are no written limits and it doesn't happen often. We did raise limits once for a customer going on a month long vacation so they wouldn't have trouble with hotels/care rentals, etc. We're a very small community bank, so we all do a lot more than larger banks because our decision makers are all sitting right there together on the banking floor!

thanks for your feedback.
we are a smaller credit union and we want to assist our members the best we can. but recently we had someone deposit a large check and then ask to have the limit increased they withdrew almost all of the amount of the check and you guessed it, the check was a fraud. (we give immediate credit for all deposits, not my call) luckily they were able to borrow money from her dad to repay us.

We also give immediate credit for all deposits. We do occasionally hold funds on a new account or if the account has had chargebacks and/or insufficient funds. Our tellers are pretty good to review account activity before automatically raising a debit card limit and we only raise the limit for POS transactions. We have only raised ATM limits for extenuating circumstances (like our customer who was vacationing for a month and the had PLENTY of money).

I wouldn't be overly concerned about the cause of the loss relating solely to allowing the card limit to be raised. You would likely have sustained the same loss when the customer came in and cashed a check to access the funds. If they want to defraud you, you either have to hold everything as long as possible or take the risks. It's the cost of doing business.

You didn't mention how long the customer's account had been established. This is the first field I want to look at when determining holds/etc. Can an "established" customer defraud the bank? Sure, but it doesn't happen as often as with a "new" customer. And whoever thought 31 days = "established" was nuts. It should be at least 6 months.