This happened to me about 1 week ago. I was checking my banking transactions online and saw a charge for 53 dollars and some odd change from an Ericson Drug in Lakeville, Minnesota. I live in a suburb of KCMo. Anyway, I was like what the hell are these people doing with my money. So fortunately I call them up and ask them what the heck do they think they are doing withdrawing money out of my bank account without my permission. He was like your mother has an outstanding balance with us and this is the only payment information we had so we just went ahead and charged it. I am like, ummmmmmmm, I am not responsible for my mother's debts with you. She is in Minnesota right now, not here in Missouri. The thing is, is that she stayed with me for about 3 months last summer and was having medications sent to my house and the postage was being billed to her by the pharmacy. In the meantime, because she didn't have a bank account, I put some of her money in my checking account to hold it there so she wouldn't lose 100's in cash. My mother is on SS and medicaid due to Manic Depression. Anyway, She had to pay them like 40 dollars one month for meds that had been sent to here so I called them up and just paid with my visa check card, a single purchase mind you. I mean, that was the entire balance at the time and it was a one time thing or so I thought. Wouldn't you know that she kept having meds sent here and when she left to go back to Minnesota, she didn't inform them of this and she accrued more outstanding postage charges with them and since it had been several months they just went ahead and charged my visa debit card again without my permission. I am so livid. I called them up and told them they are stealing from me and he said that he would not reverse the charges until he could get payment from my mother or essentially my mother's sister, Susan, whom manages all her money and is the one that receives my mother's SS checks. I don't have a clue what Susan's phone number is since I haven't even seen my Aunt since about 1994 and haven't lived in Minnesota since I 1994 as well. I threatened to go to the police and take him to court and he said go ahead because he wasn't reversing anything and feels he had every right just to use my debit card to charge the remaining balance on it. I am like no you don't, I made a single purchase over the phone to pay for an outstanding bill one time, which doesn't authorize you to use my debit card any other time in the future that you seem necessary. You never had my permission to do so. After swearing at him and giving him several of my relatives names for him to track down in the phone book, I had my husband call, after all it is a joint account and he is just as livid and definitely is filing a police report even though it seems so trivial with just 53 dollars but this guy stole from us, illegally used our debit card without our permission, and probably broke laws governing collecting outstanding debts that didn't belong to us in the first place. What would you do? I know it isn't a lot of money but it could have been worse. I didn't budget for this and that could have caused the bounce check domino theory which it didn't but still, you just never know. I haven't spoken to the bank about it yet because I know they won't do anything with just a 53 dollar charge because it has already been paid to them so I can't put stop payment on it anyway. It is just the whole thing that is making me mad that he won't just reverse the charges and bill my Aunt who manages my mother's money because he can't find her in the phonebook. Let me know what you guys think.
Melissa, a firm I used to work for had a case where the electric co. shut off a client's electricity because of a bill her mother owed. There were extenuating circumstances such as the mother was staying with the client and had emphesyma and was on oxygen (which made what they did life threatening to the mother) which may have given them the biggest basis for damages, but bottom line, we won a huge settlement for them. They cannot do that and I also believe they could lose their merchant account for doing this. Something to look into..maybe see an attorney. L P.S. I think your first step would be to contact the bank though. I believe you can dispute a charge with a Visa Debit just like you would if it were a Visa Credit.
Melissa, I'm not an expert on this but if it was me, I would do the following. File a police report. Even though it's a debit card, it's still a Visa, call the 800 number and dispute the charge. Ask for a supervisor if you need to and tell them what this moron did. Send him a letter (CRR) or call him back, a letter is always better for the paper trail. Tell him that you will file BBB and Attorney General complaints on him and his company and if necessary sue. Let him know a police report is already filed and the charge is disputed. If he's smart he'll reverse it before you have to go any further.
First thing I would have done would be to call the bank and get a new debit card with a different number on it so that the store couldn't access the account anymore.. I'm assuming you did that, right?
All of this advice is good! The best is that Visa does not allow this, and that drugstore can lose their Visa merchant priviledges. Dispute this just like you would a credit card. Your bank is obligated to investigate, because they abide by Visa rules also. If your bank blows you off, contact Visa international.
I have had unauthorized charges to my debit card and if you have a decent bank, you make them investigate. Some banks will give you back your money until the investigation is complete while others will investigate first then if they find the charges were unauthorized, refund your money. At any rate, they should make you cancel your card and issue you a new one. At any rate, this guy has messed up big time and he deserved to have his merchant account taken.
You really need to find Susan and see what's going on. Does your mother know how to reach her? If your mom is receiving SS checks and has a caretaker managing her money, then she also has a caseworker. The caseworker is responsible for knowing what's going on also. There was special on 20/20 (I think) recently that revealed bad managers and caseworkers who ripped off disabled people. Please check and make sure your mom is being cared for properly. Also there are some social services that will pay for her meds if Medicare is not covering the total cost. Check with Minnesota's program for aged and disabled (don't know what's called there). Good luck in getting your money back. They indeed did steal from you.
I agree with breeze. Contact your bank and after that VISA. Your previous one time transaction has nothing to do with your mother's current balance. Sounds like you also have a lawsuit there too.
I know exactly how you feel. I was victimized a couple of times by someone obtaining my Visa Check card number and using it. It's a pain and it sucks because my bank would NOT put the money back until AFTER they conducted their investigation. One time I was ass out of $1K that was GONE from my checking account! That's why I don't even play anymore. I don't even carry my Visa Check card anymore...I just have a plain old b.s. ATM card. It cracks me up when I pull out my ATM card, people are like....what card is that? I don't think a lot of people have even seen a regular ATM card in so long. Besides, I charge a majority of stuff anyway. The check card is safely tucked away in the sock drawer. Although I did have to bust it out for a few days because I couldn't find my ATM card. I found it though and it's back in the drawer were it belongs.
We had a somewhat similar situation about three years ago and discoverd to our surprise and horror that a Visa check card had NONE of the chargeback protections which the Visa credit card has. Now I don't know if our bank just wasn't wanting to help, because the rest of you sound very convinced that there is some recourse through Visa but we ran up against a brick wall. Everyone we spoke to said "if it had been a credit card, we could have handled it easily, but since it was your Visa debit card there's nothing we can do. We have never used it since. Hope you have a better outcome than we did.
Thank you guys for all your advice. I love it. I will forward it to my husband and even print it out so I can follow some of the things you guys said. I can't wait till we file this Monday and I will speak to my bank Monday as well. I told myself I was going to give this man until last Monday to put the money back into my account but he didn't so I called him a second time and now I know I need to take action. Sometimes it just seems so trivial for 53 dollars but it is the principal about the whole thing so I don't really care. I just feel foolish going to the police for such a small amount but he stole from me plain and simple and violated the law so he deserve recourse.
I had a similar situation a few years ago. AOL charged my bank account 2x in 1 month. It caused the dominino affect you were talking about. I knew exactly what was in my account and it caused 4 checks to be overdrawn. 4 x $29. When I called AOL they told me I was a deadbeat and should learn how to balance my checkbook! I went into my bank and explained what had happened and they reversed the charges. They told me AOL is known for doing this. Now, I will not let anyone do automatic debit. I will mail it off or take the time and do the online transaction myself. Go into the bank and speak to a C.S.R. Explain to them what had happened and they should be able to investigate and reverse the charge. I don't believe it matters if it is visa check card or debit.
They may NOT deny the charge like a credit card...SO YOU ARE OVER-DRAWN!!! Make the business pay for their mistake... You can also have a "READY RESERVE ACCOUNT" that pays if you don't have enough money in your checking account...or a savings account that will BT automatically...
keep it professional and unemotional in the letter. Cancel the visa card if you feel it's necessary and get another one reissued. State the facts in the letter. It's an unauthorized charge. You authorized a one time charge on xx, but this one is not. you called xx and discussed the matter. He knows it's not your debt, not your meds, and it's an unauthorized charge but refuses to reverse it. You let him know you equate this with stealing from you... he didn't care... "Am I my mother's keeper?" The legal answer here, I believe, is NO. This is the same as if he charged Joe Smoe's account to you simply because he had your visa on file. This is fraud, by the way... If I were you, I'd push the issue. this guy is likely bullying lots of people not just you. The other issues aside, first you must protect yourself. then, make sure your mother's finances are being taken care of.. but if you're not a custodian in any sense, it's not your business. Wow, that's so blatantly fraud I can't believe he didn't reverse the charge.. except most people would just let him get away with it. Once you let him know it wasn't authorized he had an obligation to reverse the charge. Teach him a lesson... or else we might be next As an aside, if they're so concerned about shipping charges they could send it c.o.d. or they could have her prepay shipping... it's their system causing the issue
Marie, that is exactly how I feel. He committed fraud and stole money out of my checking account. My husband told him, if he went to target to buy his buddy a shirt, paid with his credit card and then his buddy went back and picked up three more shirts and told them to charge it to my hubby's charge card is that legal and he said of course not, and we said, "What the hell is the difference then in this situation?" He remained silent. WE are filing fraud charges. My mothers custodian is her sister. I have never been the receiver to her SS checks or ADC or its equivilent. On top of this all, my mother and I had this big fallout and I will not ever speak to her again. I told her I wasn't going to go to her funeral even if she dies in the near future, which I see happening soon because of her health problems, addictions and mental problems all together. Sometimes, I am surprised medicaid picks up all these damn medical bills because she is such an expense to our tax system for problems that are mostly her fault, ie using and abusing over the counter medications, smoking and drinking 3 pots of coffee a day. Of course I don't think the medical world knows this because she doesn't tell them but I want to so bad because she is out of control. Okay, I am getting way off topic but it just makes me mad that she thinks she is clean and sober(recovering drug addict and alcoholic) yet she can't live without her prescribed pain meds, on top of taking tylenol, motrin, tylenol cold tablets, robitussin, her anti depression and manic meds, high blood pressure meds, and drinking 3 pots of coffee, at least 72 ounces of diet soda, and smoking a pack of cigerettes a day. I am not exaggerating either, this is the truth. So I think that the fact that they charged me after all this happened pisses me off even more. To Bad for him that he had to get in the middle of it and be unreasonable because I am full of fire right now and this just puts the icing on the cake.
Betacredit, AOL is still doing this! They did it to my friend in December. She's had a heck of a time getting it straightened out. This thread struck home for me on the same day. Last December I bought some gift certificates at Sam Goody. The lady asked me if I wanted 6 free issues of Entertainment magazine. I told her no. She said there was no obligation & it didn't roll into a regular account unless I wanted it. So, what the heck. I filled out the little card. I got a letter a couple of weeks ago stating that if I wanted to cancel, I had to write cancel on the bill that I would be getting. While checking my account online on Friday, I was shocked to see a debit from the magazine company! I never gave them any account numbers. I called them & royally reemed them about their illegal activity. I never authorized them to debit my account, and where in the heck did they get my account number anyway?! Apparently the Sam Goody girl wrote it in without my knowledge! I filed a complaint with the magazine company, and I'm sending a letter to Sam Goody. They are reversing the charges and were very apologetic. So here's my daily advice: Go to the Wherehouse, you can't trust Sam Goody.
The moral of the story is ... CHECK CARDS ARE DANGEROUS. They get your money NOW, and only after they have YOUR money, can you dispute it. Most banks specifically WILL NOT handle merchant disputes (something like "you agree that all merchant disputes will be handled directly between you and the merchant." I rarely if ever use my debit card anymore. Sure, I have a $5k line of credit on my checking account for peace of mind, but I can't imagine having to deal with this kind of situation. It's a lot of aggravation, time, and potentially $. Almost all of our "day to day" expenses go on Amex. They are *AWESOME* at handling disputes, and have a bunch of protections (best value guarantee, fraud protection, etc.) ... plus the biggest one of them all ... the federal protections that only a CREDIT card has re: disputes. I'd consider getting a green or gold card and treat that like your debit card. You'll earn reward points for your purchases, and have less to worry about. Best of luck to you- mj
