<p dir="ltr">Suntrust will refund disputed funds immediately on reporting a fraud charge on a debit card. Their usage security is similar to credit card - logical impossible charges based on physical distance are blocked but a quick call to security opens a legitimate charge. My cost for bogus charges is $0. </p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Feb 8, 2016 10:34 AM, "Alex Carver" <<a href="mailto:agcarver%2Bale@acarver.net">agcarver+ale@acarver.net</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Clark Howard's website has an article from December 2015 saying don't<br>
use debit cards at gas station pumps and one from November 2015 with a<br>
list of nine places to never use one (which also contains a link to an<br>
article in November 2013 about places not to use one).<br>
<br>
Clark is not a friend of debit cards.<br>
<br>
As for the laws, debit versus credit still don't have exactly the same<br>
protections. Liability on a credit card is $50 if it is physically<br>
stolen (zero if the number is stolen) and as long as you report the<br>
fraud at some point within 60 days (two billing cycles). Temporary<br>
suspension of those charges is usually immediate and in place while an<br>
investigation is underway. Debit card liability if the card or PIN is<br>
lost or stolen is $50 if reported within two days, then $500 if reported<br>
afterwards. If the card or PIN is not lost then there is no liability<br>
if reported within 60 days. There is no requirement to restore the<br>
money to your bank account while the investigation is in progress but<br>
there's a time limit of 10 days for the investigation to conclude and<br>
restore funds if necessary.<br>
<br>
Whether the issuers provide more generous options is up to them but the<br>
minimum law requirements are still different. (Details came from the<br>
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Comission<br>
<a href="http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0213-lost-or-stolen-credit-atm-and-debit-cards" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0213-lost-or-stolen-credit-atm-and-debit-cards</a>)<br>
<br>
On 2016-02-08 06:13, DJ-Pfulio wrote:<br>
> ATM skimmers were about a year worth of articled over at : KrebsOnSecurity -<br>
> just looked. The most current article there (Feb 3rd) is about a skimmer at<br>
> Safeway **on** the checkout PoS device!<br>
> <a href="https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/02/safeway-self-checkout-skimmer-close-up/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/02/safeway-self-checkout-skimmer-close-up/</a> Can<br>
> we all say "inside job?" A well-made skimmer is impossible for most people,<br>
> including me, to recognized. The criminals have make injection mold, fitted,<br>
> devices to place over the real ATM/PoS stuff for years.<br>
><br>
> Georgia and the Atlanta metro area has had skimmers for at least 5 yrs. The<br>
> quicky-mart folks don't seem to notice when these are added in less than 20<br>
> seconds at the pump.<br>
><br>
> Debit cards got credit-card-like legal protections about 10 yrs ago. Check Clark<br>
> Howard's website for more specifics. OTOH, I've refused to switch to a debit<br>
> card and fortunately my bank has retained their Maesto ATM network connections<br>
> which have worked in every country I've traveled. With debit card fraud, they<br>
> have your money already and we have to beg to get it back. With credit card<br>
> fraud, they have the bank's money, not mine, so the bank is much more likely to<br>
> work to get it back. That's my theory.<br>
><br>
> ATMs in foreign countries often have huge fees. Fortunately, my bank pays any<br>
> ATM fees, so the $15 added fee in Thailand didn't matter to me. Also, around<br>
> Cancun, there is a criminal group who owns almost every ATM machine in the town<br>
> that isn't inside a bank. Their goal is to capture the card data so they have<br>
> access to your accounts. A link:<br>
> <a href="http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/09/whos-behind-bluetooth-skimming-in-mexico/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/09/whos-behind-bluetooth-skimming-in-mexico/</a><br>
> and<br>
> <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/article/2984857/security/when-in-mexico-don-t-use-the-atms.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.networkworld.com/article/2984857/security/when-in-mexico-don-t-use-the-atms.html</a><br>
> Since mostly foreigners use those and our legal protections against fraud DO NOT<br>
> APPLY, there is little risk to those gangs.<br>
><br>
> Be careful out there. Cash still works, BTW.<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On 02/08/2016 12:51 AM, Alex Carver wrote:<br>
>> The biggest solution: dump debit cards. You have protections by law for<br>
>> credit cards which do not apply to debit cards and, in many cases, the<br>
>> credit card issuer has better policies on the books for fraudulent<br>
>> activity.<br>
>><br>
>> You also avoid the "temporary charge" situation that is usually found on<br>
>> debit cards. Many merchants post a charge to debit cards well above the<br>
>> amount you saw at the checkout terminal as a hold. When this happens,<br>
>> it acts like that amount is withdrawn already leaving it unavailable for<br>
>> further purchases.<br>
>><br>
>> After that, watch for skimmers. Take time to look at the device you're<br>
>> about to use, tug on the card reader, whatever you need to spot a<br>
>> skimmer. If you find it, report it and go somewhere else. It's very<br>
>> easy for someone to install a skimmer on things like gas pumps and ATMs,<br>
>> especially ATMs that are private brand (inside stores) or in foreign<br>
>> countries.<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> On 2016-02-07 20:51, Scott Castaline wrote:<br>
>>> Back in 2009 I had a similar situation happen to me. At the time Iwe<br>
>>> didn't have any credit cards so this happened to my debit card. I had<br>
>>> been down in Tampa and I had no problems until I got back home. I had<br>
>>> filled the rental car with gas before turning it using that card with no<br>
>>> problem. My wife picks me up at the airport and I filled our van up with<br>
>>> gas again using the same card. We get over to Kroger's I went to pick up<br>
>>> a prescription from the pharmacy and got declined. At first didn't think<br>
>>> anything of and used my wife's card no problem. Later I go to use my<br>
>>> card again to check out at Krogers and was declined again even when they<br>
>>> entered the card info manually. I called the bank (then it was ING<br>
>>> Direct and is now Capital One 360) and they didn't know why but my card<br>
>>> had been frozen. As it turned out it was the company that handled their<br>
>>> clearing and approvals, that company informed us that between the time<br>
>>> that I got gas and then the first declined attempted there were 5 credit<br>
>>> requests totaling $30,000 that were very far apart from each other in<br>
>>> Mexico at the same time. So all charges were declined and my card was<br>
>>> frozen. A week later I got a new card.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Nine months later, I had made it a daily practice to go online with my<br>
>>> banks and one morning I see several charges totaling $5,000 on my new<br>
>>> card. This time I had to do all the leg work to resolve the issues. The<br>
>>> worst part was that night I several bills scheduled which didn't happen<br>
>>> and by the time I got it straightened out I was late an several of them<br>
>>> getting clobbered with late fees. All but one merchant wound up<br>
>>> canceling the orders, Champion Sports was very quick to ship out the<br>
>>> order with in 2 hours, but did credit my account. Then I did mange to<br>
>>> get the late fees waived after several phone calls and getting escalated<br>
>>> to upper management gophers. Fortunately we were able to re-establish<br>
>>> our credit and then had a couple of credit cards and stopped using the<br>
>>> debit card immediately.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Now it seems almost like clock work every 9 months we're getting fraud<br>
>>> alerts on one of our cards so we don't have card numbers long enough to<br>
>>> expire. At one time we had 2 cards locked at about the same time, and<br>
>>> that was just in the last 6 months.<br>
>>><br>
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