I recently logged into my USAA account to pay a bill and I noticed three large transactions from my joint checking account. My first thought was that my wife may have gone shopping (the category listed was clothing and shoes). But my wife isn’t the type of person to spend over $1,000 on three separate transactions at the same store, in the same day – in another country.
Further investigation showed the card in question was mine, not hers. It looks like I was the victim of fraud. Thankfully, I have USAA on my team, and they helped me take care of this situation in less than half an hour.
What to do if Your Debit Card is Stolen
I am very careful how and where I use my debit and credit cards. I almost always use my credit card over my debit card because credit cards offer better consumer protections and better cash rewards.
Do you know what to do if your debit card is stolen?
I usually only use my debit card for ATM withdrawals. In fact, I distinctly remember one of the last times I used my USAA debit card to make a purchase. It was last summer and I received a call from the USAA fraud department as I was leaving the store (I hadn’t used the card for a purchase in a long time, and I made the purchase in another state while on vacation, so USAA’s software flagged the transaction and their department called me).
But a stolen debit card or stolen credit card can happen to you, even if you take precaution. Thieves, may for example, plant a virus onto your computer, hack into a third party system that stores your debit card information, they could skim your card number when you make a purchase at a restaurant or other location, or you could simply lose your wallet.
Fill out a fraud report
The first step in any case of credit or debit card theft is to report it immediately. This will limit the damage to your account, get the ball rolling on having your money replaced in your checking account (it can take a few days), and get a replacement card sent to you.
Filling out a fraud report with USAA was easy – it took about 20-25 minutes total, and the customer service rep handled the entire process over the phone. All I needed to do was answer questions while he took down my information and verified my statements. Throughout the process the customer service rep never made me feel as though I did anything wrong (of course, I didn’t, but I’ve dealt with another company in the past in which the customer service reps had the sound of suspicion in their voice as they processed the fraud report).
This highlights why I prefer to use credit cards over debit cards
These thieves stole over $1,000 of my money. That is money that was immediately taken from my checking account. Thankfully, we had enough money in our account to cover the temporary loss of that money. But we were lucky. Had we not noticed it, we could have bounced checks, and possibly had to deal with overdrafts fees and embarrassment. It’s just an ugly situation.
This event highlights why I primarily use credit cards, as they offer better consumer protections against fraud (read the FTC guidelines for stolen credit and debit cards for consumer responsibilities).
When your credit card number is stolen, the disputed charges should be removed from your available balance, which gives you the flexibility to continue spending as you normally would. With debit cards, however, the stolen money is immediately taken out of your account, which can cause overdrafts and other problems. It can also take some time before you get the funds replaced. In other words, it can quickly become a financial nightmare.
This was an inconvenience, but no major harm was done. In the end, this is an inconvenience for me, and for USAA. But I won’t lose any money. I should receive the money back in my account in a few days. I also had to cancel my ATM / Debit card, and I will get a new one in about a week or so. Other than that, it was a half hour of my time, and the hassle of not having a debit card for a week. I didn’t have any automatic payments routed through that particular card, so I didn’t need to cancel any payments and set up a new payment source. Had that been the case, this would have been a larger inconvenience.
Thankfully, I had enough money in my account that it didn’t hurt us. And thankfully we had USAA on our side during this event. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if either of those had not been the case.
Photo credit: Don Hankins.
Gwen H says
Thanks for writing this! After my debit card was just rejected at the gas station and then the commissary this evening (yes, I was silly enough to try twice because I KNEW just how much money we had yesterday), we discovered we had a very similar situation to what you’re describing! Three large transactions on our account to two different CVS and one Rite Aid pharmacies in New Jersey. We are currently stationed in Guam. Guam. But to my embarrassment, USAA did not call us, they simply blocked the funds to our account, causing me deep humiliation at the check-out counter while trying to splurge on a bag of King Crab Legs for my birthday. They took over $1,200 from our account before USAA shut it down without notice. But I still love them (USAA), because at least I know we’ll get our money back and we didn’t have to defend ourselves. This is the 2nd time this has happened to us being overseas though. We changed the numbers and it happened again… I wish I could figure out what we’re doing wrong, but I think we may resort to your credit-card-only tactic. Thanks for the advice!
Ryan Guina says
Gwen, Thanks for sharing your story – I’m sorry to hear this happened to you, but it’s good to know that you should be covered for the fraudulent expenses. As I mentioned in the article, I primarily use credit cards because of the additional protections, as well as the cash back benefits. I recommend this as a solution – but only if you have the discipline to pay your card in full each month. Otherwise the interest and fees aren’t worth it!
The other recommendation is to be as careful as possible when and where you use your cards (credit or debit). I don’t recommend using them over open air wi-fi connections like at a restaurant, coffee shop, or library. You might also consider using cash at stores “off the beaten path” if you aren’t familiar with them. The final recommendation is to regularly check your computer for malware and use an anti-virus software program to help prevent attacks (there are many great free programs such as Avast and AVG).
Nina says
The same thing just happened to me. Except , I had my debit card this whole time. But I guess someone from somewhere found my debit card number somewhere and spent $795 on something called London Borough/Green. No idea, but I called USAA and they’re in the process of fixing it!