Hello all. I'm a pretty good customer at my bank (no overdrafts, never a dispute, never bounced a check, direct deposit from same company for years, spend a good amount of money, etc). Now, my debit card got stolen by a friend (or so I thought) in early February and used without my permission (he also stole my cellphone)... he ended up withdrawing money from an ATM and purchasing a few things. A few hundred dollars worth. My pin number was my birthday month/day so it was pretty easy to figure out. The bank could tell the person tried to withdraw money several times (couldn't because it went over my daily limit) and input a wrong pin many times as well. Why the card wasn't blocked on the spot is beyond me.

The bank issued a provisional credit for about 80% of the amount, replaced my cards and made me change my pin, but two days later the fraud department decided the transactions were authorized because they used PIN number, so they would be taking back the provisional credit in 7 days. I *truly* didn't make or authorize the transactions, but they refused to appeal the decision on *unknown* grounds. They also refused to check security cameras on ATM/Stores, and basically every fraud customer rep told me a different story.

Since I didn't have the money the day before to cover these transactions I asked them for an extension until payday at least and they said "they might be able to" over the phone. I asked how will I know or if I could get a written notice and they said to call back in a few days. In the end they never took the money out or sent any other letters. It's now been about a month since that and I never heard back from them.

Do you have any idea of what might be going on?

Regards,

Have your attorney give them a call.

Thanks, I ended up going to a branch today with my inquiry and they called the fraud department. They said the extension I requested was "applied" but they never went ahead and "manually" withdrew the money (no reason, apparently it happens sometimes). So now it was too late for them to do so and they decided to make it final. They told me they were going to open a new dispute for the full amount and close it immediately in my favor then send me a new letter by mail acknowledging the "provisional credit" as final payment.

I didn't understand any of it but I guess it's good? I asked for a receipt but they said the letter will come in the mail.

What seems to have happened is a break-down in your bank's dispute process. If/when you receive your letter, be sure to read it and make certain it states that the credit is final AND keep your letter. Also, if you've received any overdraft or "bounced check" fees that are attributable to the fraud ask for those refunds as well, if the bank has not already issued those refunds.

If you feel so inclined, file a complaint with the banks regulator. Fair chance if this happened to you that it's happening to others. Should cue the regulator or ideally the banks compliance folks to take a look if they are paying attention to complaints like they should be. It probably won't get you anything yourself though since things seem to have resolved in your favor?

On the topic of getting fees reversed, if there were any charges for ATMs related to the unauthorized transactions get those back as well.

Wow it is disheartening that banks are still getting this wrong.

While I can appreciate the process of provisional credit. The reversal can be problematic. They're not going to give you 30 days notice that they're taking their money back