begin quoting MattyJ as of Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 01:39:12PM -0700: > <quote who="John Oliver"> > > Except for one thing... if it's stolen or "hacked", your money > > disappears from your account. That can cause a cascade of other failed > > payments, fees, hassles, etc. With a true credit card, you get a > > statement about how much the thief racked up, and you call them and say, > > "No thanks, not mine, I won't be paying". I know must reputable banks > > will act to make things right if a debit card is used to clean out your > > account, but immediately? > > I had this happen to me about 5 years ago with Wamu. Someone bought over > 1000 bucks worth of cigarettes and beer at three Piggly Wiggly's in the > greater Charlotte metropolitan area. > > I didn't notice for a few days and checks bounced, etc. WaMu investigated > and provisionally returned my money within a day, did all the paperwork > for me, returned the NSF charges and wrote letters to a few of the > companies that I NSF'ed to explain what happened, etc.
Wow. That's some customer service. > I have no idea if this is normal, it doesn't seem like it should be, given > banks' reputations for customer service, but in my case it worked out. > Maybe I just happened to get the hot-shot loss management clerk that was > gunning for a promotion. It's not normal. Most banks aren't actively obnoxious about it (aside from ordering the transactions to promote such cascades), but neither are they especially inclined to do the legwork to reverse it. Maybe it has to do with the size of your funds. > On the flip side, WaMu monitors my account for 'unusual' activity. > Unfortunately, buying a MacBook for my wife was unusual and that > transaction was rejected until I called them to authorize it. So it can go > both ways. Actually, I'm failing to see the downside here. -- Who buys a macbook on a whim? Stewart Stremler -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
