Let me set the scene for you:
I am in the car with my older sister driving to my sister-in-laws baby shower (that I am hosting). It is 8:00 in the morning and we run through Dunkin’ Donuts. I hand her my debt card, and the cashier says “Sorry, your card was declined.” … I respond with “Umm, that is not possible.” Because, I know. I mean I KNOW what we have in our accounts! I hand her my back up debit card, and we grab our drinks.
I pull over because I am a person who NEEDS to know what is going on, and could not wait. I pull up my banking app on my phone and there I see it:
Checking Account #1 – 0.00
Checking Account #2 – 0.00
Savings Account #1 – 1.54
My immediate thought is whoa – the bank must be having a serious glitch going on! I click on my checking account tab and see it. Hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds upon hundreds of dollars spent the night before at freaking Red Lobster (More specifically spent on Red Lobster gift cards). We did not go to Red Lobster the night before or spend all of our money on gift cards for the restaurant!
It is at that moment I realize someone has stolen our account information and has since drained our accounts.
This is what happened to me over the weekend. – The long weekend where the banks are not only closed on Saturday but also the holiday on Monday. We had to wait 3 full days, before we could even know if we would be able to get it all sorted out. Now that we are on the other side (almost- our money is still not back in our account and we do not have our new cards yet) I wanted to share with you, what you should be do immediately following a situation like this – and what you can do to prevent it.
The moment you find out someone has either stolen your bank card OR (in our situation) they stole the data from our card, and used it to create another one
1st -Call the fraud department at your bank. Even if it is at night, or a weekend the fraud department will be open. They will be able to cancel your card and stop transactions. They however, will not be able to do anything to get you your money back.
2nd– Get to the bank as soon as possible – explain to them what has happened. You’ll have to sit down and answer a few questions while they fill out some paperwork. You’ll sign the paper and they will send it into their fraud department. For me it will take up to 5 days before our money is back in our accounts, and 7-10 days before we get our new debit cards.
- Our bank will still allow us to take money out – at the teller, and to write checks. Any and all overdraft fees will be returned, and they make sure that checks do not bounce.
- It is also important to note that all of our bills for that paycheck period had been paid a few day prior to this incident – so I did not have to worry about bills not being paid. <– which would have made this whole ordeal so much worse!
How to still live your life:
I decided to turn this into an impromptu spending freeze! I figure at least we will be able to save some extra money over these next two weeks.
Just a security we have a back up debit card. It is a completely separate account – and were able to use that for gas and groceries.
In addition to the debt card, we have an emergency credit card. This is only for TRUE emergencies! You should never use it unless in situations like this. Scott and I are thankful that because of the back up debit card, and cash on hand we have not had to whip out our credit card to cover anything.
How To Prevent It:
My brother who is a police officer AND the bank teller whose full time job is to handle fraud just like what happened to us, recommends in using a credit card for ALL purchases. Even if you have to immediately pay the balance off that night (or when you get to your car after the purchase) using a credit card, is the best way to keep you and your money safe.
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