When Your Credit, Debit or ATM Card is Lost or Stolen

With many of us, use of credit cards, ATM, or Debit cards are much more convenient and safer than carrying cash everywhere. If you lose your card, the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), offer you with the protection on your lost card, there-by limiting your financial loss. In losing your card, or with your card being stolen, you must immediately report the loss or theft to the card issuing authority. Most of the card companies have toll-free numbers for you to call free, and others offer 24-hour service, by which you can easily pick up your phone and report the situation. You would do better if you follow this up with a letter, sent by certified post, requesting for a signed acknowledgement for your record. In your letter you should include your account number, the time when you found your card missing, and the date you called up to first report the loss.

Your homeowner's insurance policy might have covered your liability for your card theft, which you may look into. In case it does not, there are some insurance companies who would permit you to change your policy and include this protection. However, under FCBA you are protected for unauthorized use of your card, and under this law your liability is up to $50 for such uses. It is necessary that you report the loss or theft immediately to the card company, and if you report before the card is used, under the federal law, the credit card company cannot hold you responsible for any unauthorized use. On the other hand, if your card is used before you report the loss or theft, you will be liable for only $50 for the unauthorized operation of your card. Further, under the law, if you have lost the number and not the card, you have no liability at all in the event unauthorized use.

After you have reported the loss, both by telephone followed by a letter, you would need to check your bills carefully, to find out if there has been any unauthorized charges posted. If you find any, it is best that you send a letter right away to the card company, mentioning regarding the unauthorized charge. The letter should be sent by certified post, requesting a return acknowledgement, which you should keep for your records. In that letter you may mention regarding the loss or theft that you had reported, quoting the date of your call to the credit card company, and the reference of the letter that followed. You need to take care that the letter is addressed to the right address, which is typically marked as "billing inquiries", and not to the address where you usually send your payments. You may locate this address at the back of your recent bill from the credit card issuer.

The federal law, EFTA, takes a different view to your ATM or Debit card loss or theft. In this case, the liability of unauthorized use depends upon how quickly you have reported the loss or theft to the debit or ATM card issuer. If you have reported the loss or theft before the card has been used without your permission, you cannot be held responsible by the card issuer for any unauthorized transfers. If your lost or theft card is used before you report the loss, your liability will depend upon how quick you have reported the matter to your card company.

For example, if the loss or theft of your card has been reported within two business days of the loss, you will not be held responsible for any unauthorized use for more than $50. On the other hand, if you delay reporting the loss or theft for more than two days, you are liable to lose up to $500 of unauthorized use of your card. If you delay to report the loss or theft of your card for more than 60 days after your bank statement has been mailed to you, containing the unauthorized use, you stand to lose all of the money in your bank account, including the line of credit that you may have for overdrafts. However, in case of loss of your debit card number, you are only liable for the transfers that have taken place 60 days after the bank statement has been mailed to you, containing the unauthorized transfer.

As soon as you find unauthorized transfers in your bank statement, you would need to report that immediately, since, the quicker you report the loss of your ATM or debit card, you will not be held responsible for any transfers that take place after that period.

Protecting your Cards

You would need to keep your cards in a secured place, and you should be aware of its where-about. In cases, where the ATM or the debit card involves the use of a PIN, you should keep that PIN a secret, and you should not give it out to anybody. It will not be proper for you to use your name, address, birthdates, phone numbers, or social security number as a part of your PIN. You should preferably use alpha-numeric to make up your PIN and try to memorize the number.

In protecting your ATM or debit card, you should need to take care of the following:

1. You should be very cautious in placing an order over the phone, where you would need to divulge your account number. You must make sure that you are dealing with a reputed company before you give that number away.

2. You should not, under any circumstances, write your account number on the face of an envelope or a postcard.

3. You should always draw a line through the blank spaces on the charge or debit card slips, so that no one can fill that up to change the total amount.

4. You should not sign a blank charge or debit card slip.

5. You would need to destroy the carbons of your charge or debit card slip, and keep the slip itself. You would need that to match the amounts against the bill or the statement that you receive.

6. If you have old cards, do not leave them lying around. You would need to cut them into small sizes and destroy them.

7. are often discrepancies in account statements or bills. Look at your statements as soon as you get them, and match the charges against the slips that you have. If you should find any error, you should bring it to the knowledge of the card issuer immediately by phone, followed by a letter. This letter must be sent by certified post, requesting for an acknowledgement for your records. You will have to address this letter to the special address for inquiries as mentioned in the statement or bill. There are two federal laws, FCBA and EFTA, which protect you against your credit card, debit and ATM cards respectively. As regards your ATM and debit cards, the law provides you with protection against billing errors, which, by law, the card issuer must look into, if reported within 60 days of the date your statement was mailed to you.

8. You should keep a separate record of your card numbers, account numbers, expiration dates, and the telephone numbers of each card issuer. This will help you to report any discrepancies, errors, loss, or theft immediately.

9. When you are going out, you should carry only the cards that you think you will need.

Where-ever the PIN is needed, do not carry it with you in your wallet or write it on your debit or ATM card. You would need to periodically check your account activity, making sure that no unauthorized charges have been debited from your account. This you can do by comparing the balances and checking with your withdrawals or purchases that you have made so far, keeping your checks and balances up to date. If you notice discrepancies, you need to take them up immediately with your card issuer, and have the same resolved.

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