What is the name of your state?I live in Texas and signed the app for my bank account in Texas.
In October of last year, my wife’s Visa check card was stolen. When she realized it, we notified the bank. The thief that stole the card used it to make several fraudulent purchases. Mostly they were gasoline purchases, but one was at Walmart for about 190 dollars.
I thought some things that occurred in the whole ordeal were not right. So here is the short version:
The bank at first tried to tell us that we had to call each merchant where there was an unauthorized charge and dispute it with them. They also said I need to call the law enforcement agency in each jurisdiction where each unauthorized charge was made and get a separate police report for each incident.
So I went online and looked at my online register. Each item doesn’t list the phone number or address of each merchant. In some cases, I had never heard of who it is. Also, the thief had bought gasoline at about 30 places. A gasoline charge comes into the account as a one dollar charge, and then once the charge comes in, it’s deducted from the account at the full dollar amount. Sometimes this takes a week or two to finally come in.
My online statement showed about 20 or 30 one dollar charges at various gas stations, and from the looks of it, they were in many, many different gas stations all around the Dallas area. I believe some were in as many as 5 different counties and even more cities.
There is no way I could possibly call all the police departments of these places and file a report.
I called a police department in Murphy (a small city near Dallas) and told them what the bank’s fraud department had requested that I do. He said that’s highly unusual. He recommended I contact the police in the city where the card was stolen and file a report with them. So I did. I called the Richardson police department and filed a theft report with them. I called the banks fraud department back up and told them the case number. They balked and said I need to find all the places where it was used fraudulently and give them reports. I told them that is not what the police said to do, and that I do not have days to research every single place it was used, which looked to be more than 30 places. I told them bank I do not have phone numbers for the merchants, and that I simply did not have the time and money (for long distance) to call all these places. So I told them which online charges that were fraudulent and they could do the research. Since they had the merchants’ names and addressed and I didn’t, they would be in a much better place to research this than I am. I also provided them with the name of the officer in the Murphy police department that told me it was not my responsibility to do this research and that it was the banks. I also gave them the police report number from Richardson and told them it was now their responsibility to research them.
A few days later, someone from the bank called my wife and she asked that they credit my account for the total amount of the fraudulent charges. They did issue a provisional credit for the amount, which I am grateful for.
After about a month or two, we were told by phone that the research was over and that the fraud case was being closed. We were told at that time by the bank that the amount of the provisional credit was correct. So we considered the case to be behind us and the matter closed.
I was laid off from my job in January of 2005. I wasn’t eligible for unemployment benefits since I was also laid off in 2003 and I used up my unemployment benefits then and I hadn’t worked long enough yet to be eligible for any more this time. So finances were tight until I got another job in March. I started work at the new job, but in mid-March the bank deducted nearly 190 dollars from my account. This was done without notice by the bank.
Because finances were tight, I didn’t have any reserve in my account, so many charges came through in small amounts that were paid by the bank on a negative balance. The bank charges 33.00 per instance as a fee for paying these items. I did not agree to this, but this is something they just do as part of having an account with them. These fees are deducted from the account immediately or the very next day after they pay the items, and there were many small items, so these fees mounted very quickly. Since they deducted the fees, many more small items were out on the account, and it caused those to also be paid against a negative balance. Because of the steep amount of the fees, over the next several weeks, my account has been devastated. They have charged me almost six hundred dollars in fees and have threatened to close the account and turn me over to ChexSystems so I cannot open any more accounts.
I contacted the bank and they said that the amount of 190 dollars was deducted from my account because months ago, during the period of time when the fraudulent charges were taking place, that Walmart had credited us directly for that fraudulent charge. I went back to the statements from last year and I did see where they had credited us for that charge. However, we took the statement from the bank last year that the amounts were correct and that the amount of money in my account was correct. So we reconciled the accounts last year as being correct, relying on the bank that the amounts were correct and that the balance being shown by the bank was really the correct balance we had in the account. Since almost 6 months had passed we had no reason to believe that the amount could be take without warning at any time by the bank.
The bank asserts they have the right to take this money from my account without warning and that we should have caught the amount last year and known that the money in my account could be taken at any time without warning. I disagree. Even the banks own accounting didn’t catch it until almost 6 months have past. Why should I have caught it sooner?
I sent them a certified letter almost two months ago asking that they re-credit the overdraft fees from my account. None of the fees would have happened had they not taken the money from my account without warning. So I expected them to refund the fees. I didn’t get a single reply from that letter. They didn’t call or send a reply. I followed up with another certified letter a month ago. I got a call only a week ago from someone at the headquarters of the bank telling me that I should have known that the money was in error and they will not refund the fees.
I told them that they need to close the account now and that I would not be responsible for any more activity on the account. They told me they will not close it until the balance is paid to a zero balance and then I could close the account.
I do not have 600 dollars to pay them for these fees before I close the account. The bank is hitting me with monthly fees for keeping the account open, and then charging me 33 dollar overdraft fees each time these fees are taken out.
They refuse to close the account, and refuse to credit me the overdraft fees.
I do not feel I should have been responsible in this case because:
1) They should have notified me by voice or certified mail that they made a mistake and will be taking money out of my account.
2) Notification should be made with sufficient time for me to adjust my finances and balance in my account.
3) They told me last year that the amount they gave me in provisional credit was correct and was now not considered provisional any more.
4) They should have responded to my first certified letter which would have prevented even more fees.
5) I am not responsible for knowing that this extra amount was already double credited because I am not legally obligated to reconcile my checkbook and should be able to take the banks word for what is there is correct.
6) I am not legally responsible for money that is credited to my account and left there for more than several cycles (over 5 months) when the banking laws require that I must notify the bank of disputes in my account within a much quicker time frame (60 days). Why are they allowed to just take money out of my account when they left it there for over 60 days while they require me to notify them of errors in 60 days or they won’t be responsible?
Should I sue in small claims? What is the likelihood of success?
In October of last year, my wife’s Visa check card was stolen. When she realized it, we notified the bank. The thief that stole the card used it to make several fraudulent purchases. Mostly they were gasoline purchases, but one was at Walmart for about 190 dollars.
I thought some things that occurred in the whole ordeal were not right. So here is the short version:
The bank at first tried to tell us that we had to call each merchant where there was an unauthorized charge and dispute it with them. They also said I need to call the law enforcement agency in each jurisdiction where each unauthorized charge was made and get a separate police report for each incident.
So I went online and looked at my online register. Each item doesn’t list the phone number or address of each merchant. In some cases, I had never heard of who it is. Also, the thief had bought gasoline at about 30 places. A gasoline charge comes into the account as a one dollar charge, and then once the charge comes in, it’s deducted from the account at the full dollar amount. Sometimes this takes a week or two to finally come in.
My online statement showed about 20 or 30 one dollar charges at various gas stations, and from the looks of it, they were in many, many different gas stations all around the Dallas area. I believe some were in as many as 5 different counties and even more cities.
There is no way I could possibly call all the police departments of these places and file a report.
I called a police department in Murphy (a small city near Dallas) and told them what the bank’s fraud department had requested that I do. He said that’s highly unusual. He recommended I contact the police in the city where the card was stolen and file a report with them. So I did. I called the Richardson police department and filed a theft report with them. I called the banks fraud department back up and told them the case number. They balked and said I need to find all the places where it was used fraudulently and give them reports. I told them that is not what the police said to do, and that I do not have days to research every single place it was used, which looked to be more than 30 places. I told them bank I do not have phone numbers for the merchants, and that I simply did not have the time and money (for long distance) to call all these places. So I told them which online charges that were fraudulent and they could do the research. Since they had the merchants’ names and addressed and I didn’t, they would be in a much better place to research this than I am. I also provided them with the name of the officer in the Murphy police department that told me it was not my responsibility to do this research and that it was the banks. I also gave them the police report number from Richardson and told them it was now their responsibility to research them.
A few days later, someone from the bank called my wife and she asked that they credit my account for the total amount of the fraudulent charges. They did issue a provisional credit for the amount, which I am grateful for.
After about a month or two, we were told by phone that the research was over and that the fraud case was being closed. We were told at that time by the bank that the amount of the provisional credit was correct. So we considered the case to be behind us and the matter closed.
I was laid off from my job in January of 2005. I wasn’t eligible for unemployment benefits since I was also laid off in 2003 and I used up my unemployment benefits then and I hadn’t worked long enough yet to be eligible for any more this time. So finances were tight until I got another job in March. I started work at the new job, but in mid-March the bank deducted nearly 190 dollars from my account. This was done without notice by the bank.
Because finances were tight, I didn’t have any reserve in my account, so many charges came through in small amounts that were paid by the bank on a negative balance. The bank charges 33.00 per instance as a fee for paying these items. I did not agree to this, but this is something they just do as part of having an account with them. These fees are deducted from the account immediately or the very next day after they pay the items, and there were many small items, so these fees mounted very quickly. Since they deducted the fees, many more small items were out on the account, and it caused those to also be paid against a negative balance. Because of the steep amount of the fees, over the next several weeks, my account has been devastated. They have charged me almost six hundred dollars in fees and have threatened to close the account and turn me over to ChexSystems so I cannot open any more accounts.
I contacted the bank and they said that the amount of 190 dollars was deducted from my account because months ago, during the period of time when the fraudulent charges were taking place, that Walmart had credited us directly for that fraudulent charge. I went back to the statements from last year and I did see where they had credited us for that charge. However, we took the statement from the bank last year that the amounts were correct and that the amount of money in my account was correct. So we reconciled the accounts last year as being correct, relying on the bank that the amounts were correct and that the balance being shown by the bank was really the correct balance we had in the account. Since almost 6 months had passed we had no reason to believe that the amount could be take without warning at any time by the bank.
The bank asserts they have the right to take this money from my account without warning and that we should have caught the amount last year and known that the money in my account could be taken at any time without warning. I disagree. Even the banks own accounting didn’t catch it until almost 6 months have past. Why should I have caught it sooner?
I sent them a certified letter almost two months ago asking that they re-credit the overdraft fees from my account. None of the fees would have happened had they not taken the money from my account without warning. So I expected them to refund the fees. I didn’t get a single reply from that letter. They didn’t call or send a reply. I followed up with another certified letter a month ago. I got a call only a week ago from someone at the headquarters of the bank telling me that I should have known that the money was in error and they will not refund the fees.
I told them that they need to close the account now and that I would not be responsible for any more activity on the account. They told me they will not close it until the balance is paid to a zero balance and then I could close the account.
I do not have 600 dollars to pay them for these fees before I close the account. The bank is hitting me with monthly fees for keeping the account open, and then charging me 33 dollar overdraft fees each time these fees are taken out.
They refuse to close the account, and refuse to credit me the overdraft fees.
I do not feel I should have been responsible in this case because:
1) They should have notified me by voice or certified mail that they made a mistake and will be taking money out of my account.
2) Notification should be made with sufficient time for me to adjust my finances and balance in my account.
3) They told me last year that the amount they gave me in provisional credit was correct and was now not considered provisional any more.
4) They should have responded to my first certified letter which would have prevented even more fees.
5) I am not responsible for knowing that this extra amount was already double credited because I am not legally obligated to reconcile my checkbook and should be able to take the banks word for what is there is correct.
6) I am not legally responsible for money that is credited to my account and left there for more than several cycles (over 5 months) when the banking laws require that I must notify the bank of disputes in my account within a much quicker time frame (60 days). Why are they allowed to just take money out of my account when they left it there for over 60 days while they require me to notify them of errors in 60 days or they won’t be responsible?
Should I sue in small claims? What is the likelihood of success?
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