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Tanya asks:

Hi, I want to ask a question. My debit card was cloned at a bank machine in Latin America despite my greatest effort to hide my PIN when i put it in and a substantial amount of money was taken from my account before I realized. I immediately cancelled the card, should i recieve my money back? how long should it take?

Answer:

Tanya, I’m going to have to assume that you have a U.S. based debit card because while I’m good, I’m not good enough to know the laws of a card issued in Latin America.

Readers of my blog and my site Debt Cards Suck know how I feel about debit cards. I hope I didn’t sugar coat that too much for you?

I think you should go and read this post for more technical information about why debit cards are a huge risk for you.

No matter what you have been made to believe, a debit card does not contain the same protections as a credit card does. If a crook takes money out of your account with a debit card it could be lost for good. And if you don’t notice it immediately, you could be in real financial trouble and out all your money in your checking account and any linked overdraft.

Banks make more per transaction if you use your debit card so guess which cards the banks promote? If you said debit cards, you win!

I never use my debit card for any transaction I could use my credit card for.

Here are some debit card facts that will curl the hair on your toes:

  • A guarantee by your bank is only as strong as the customer service offered by the bank. It is not offered by law.
  • Money that comes out of your bank account with a debit card is gone. It only gets put back in if your bank wants to or agrees to do that while it is investigating your complaint.
  • Not all banks protect consumers with debit card fraud protection from foreign transactions.
  • Some banks are asserting that if money was taken with a crook using your PIN that you were somehow negligent in protecting your PIN and thus the bank is not responsible for protecting you. And crooks know how to clone a debit card.
  • After the money is stolen from your account, as checks come in they may bounce and you will pay bounced check fees and it can damage your good credit with the check based credit bureaus.

Bottom line on your situation, call your bank ASAP and ask them directly what they are going to do for you.

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Steve

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