credit card company making its own payment

What is the name of your state? Wisconsin
A credit card company charged my mother's checking account $3000 and claimed it was for a Check-by-phone payment. She never authorized this payment in any way, she has not spoken to one of their reps in months. She did not have enough money in the account and the check number the company used was 1500 checks behind her most recently written check. She is now being charged an overdraft and the bank wants her to pay for a stop-payment on the check. Should she have to pay for an overdraft on a fraudulent check? Should she do a stop-payment? What are her legal options against this credit card company? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Ladynred]

If she never authorized that draft, then the bank should be returning her money - but she has to notify the bank that it was unauthorized.

$3000 sounds like a LOT of money though for a payment.. are you certian she hasn't been sued and there's a judgment against her ? Almost sounds more like a levy to satisfy a judgment than a payment to a creditor.

[JETX]

Based on the information in your post, it is clear that this was a fraudulent check (the number, etc.). I suggest she go to the bank, sign a 'fraud affidavit' and demand that they return her money. The bank will pursue recovery of the funds from the receiver by a 'charge-back'.

And no, she does not have to pay a 'stop pay' fee for a fraudulent check.

Thanks for all of your help, it is greatly appreciated. The credit card company insists that she called them to arrange the payment, so it is not a judgement against her. But there is no way she would ever have authorized a payment for $3000, she has nowhere near that kind of money. Thanks again.

[JETX]

It is obvious that this was NOT a judgment.
Do as I suggested and have her fill out a 'fraud affidavit' and get her money back from the bank. Simply, the bank has a 'fiduciary duty' to protect her funds. They failed in that duty by allowing this obviously faulty (and NSF) draft to go through.

[lwpat]

Automatic bank drafts can be a real problem and there are several scams making the rounds. Usually it is a company in Canada and for a small amount like 29.99 that may go unnoticed for several months. Then what the bank will tell you it is your responsibility to contact the company and get a refund.

This is not true. If you did not authorize the withdrawal your bank must return the money. In addition I would send the bank a letter, CRRR, that this particular company is not authorized to make any bank drafts from this account or any other account.

I mention this because there have been similar cases where there were not enough funds in the checking account so the bank just took them out of the savings account. They cannot do this but getting it straightened out with a big bank takes weeks while you do not have access to your money. Then they want to charge you for all of the other checks that bounced.

Never ever ever give a collection agency permission for an automatic bank draft. If you are making payments I recommend that you set up a separate account at a different bank keeping just enough money in it to cover the checks you are sending each month.