“Bank Holdup”, is the title of a column in the July/August issue of AARP. Ron Burley has a column called ‘On your Side’, he goes to fight for the little guy against business trying to rip off AARP subscribers.
Melodie Marks from Westminster, Ca wrote to Ron, “I bank online. Last month, instead of my regular payment of $82 to Time Warner Cable, Bank of America transferred $8,200! The bank said I would have to get the money back from Time Warner. Despite many calls and hours in line, I’ve gotten nowhere. Now, I have no money. Can you help?”
Front line customer service reps couldn’t fix the problem, Diane Wagner a senior vice president said it would take weeks to reverse the transfer. Then early on Saturday morning, (I assume Sat. was the next day), Diane Wagner called to say Bank of America had credited Melodie Marks’ account back.
This experience shows the advantage of using a credit card to make an electronic payment vs. a electronic funds transfer, check online, or check over the phone. If someone makes an error and charges the credit card for an extra $8118, all you have to do is call the credit card company. Then, you have a heavy weight on your side fighting for you – the credit card company.
Melodie Marks had AARP on her side, a lobbying group representing over 20,000,000 people.
Who would be on your side ? ? ? …………….
I will close with Ron Burley’s summary to Melodie Marks. “While online banking is convenient, your case shows that the lack of a paper trail con be a problem. Who ditched the decimal point – you or someone who processed the payment? Even the bank couldn’t say. Online bill payers may be just a keystroke away from monetary mayhem. “