#USAA #debitcardfraud #bankingissues #financialfrustration #unauthorizedcharges
Hey there! Dealing with unauthorized charges on your bank account is a major headache, especially when the bank doesn’t seem to be on your side. I can totally understand your frustration, and it’s important to know that you do have options in this situation. Let’s break it down and explore some steps you can take to address this issue and potentially get your $2K back.
1. **Gather Evidence**: It’s crucial to gather any and all evidence you have related to the unauthorized charges. This can include bank statements, communication with USAA, and any other relevant documentation.
2. **Contact USAA Again**: While you’ve likely spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with USAA already, it’s important to continue to follow up with them. Be persistent and keep track of all communication. Ask for specific details about why they believe the charges are not fraudulent.
3. **Submit a Formal Complaint**: If you feel like you’re not getting anywhere with USAA’s customer service, consider submitting a formal complaint. You can do this through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) or your state’s attorney general’s office. These organizations are there to advocate for consumers in cases like this.
4. **Legal Action**: If all else fails, you may want to consider seeking legal counsel. An attorney who specializes in banking and consumer rights can help you understand your options for pursuing legal action against USAA.
5. **Warn Others**: Use your experience as a cautionary tale for others. Share your story on social media, review websites, and any other platforms where potential USAA customers may be seeking information. This can help raise awareness and potentially put pressure on USAA to address your situation.
It’s important to remember that dealing with a situation like this can be incredibly frustrating, but it’s also crucial to remain as calm and persistent as possible. Keep detailed records of all communication and documentation related to the unauthorized charges, as this will be invaluable if you need to escalate the situation further.
In the future, consider taking additional measures to protect yourself from potential fraud, such as signing up for text or email alerts for any activity on your accounts, and regularly monitoring your statements for any unfamiliar transactions.
Above all, don’t give up. You have rights as a consumer, and there are avenues available to help you address and potentially resolve this issue. 🛡️
Remember, you’re not alone in this, and there are resources and organizations that can help advocate for you in situations like this. Stay proactive, stay persistent, and advocate for your rights as a consumer. And most importantly, avoid USAA if you can, as their handling of your situation is certainly cause for concern.
I hope this information has been helpful to you, and I wish you the best in resolving this frustrating situation. Hang in there! 🌟
Reg E complaint with both the OCC and CFPB
File a complaint at [consumerfinance.gov](https://consumerfinance.gov)
File a police report, and give USAA the report number, this can help show them you’re serious (it’s a legal declaration that it wasn’t you)
File a police report about the stolen money. Contact the merchants where the charges were made and see if they can give you any additional information about the transactions.
Were they online transactions or in person transactions?
File a CFPB complaint, they will fix it for you, no doubt. You can also file a police report if it goes nowhere just to back up the evidence.
Your testimony is evidence. You could get a notary to notarize an affidavit just stating you never received the card and never made the withdrawal/charges.
Have you thought of contacting the merchants where the fraudulent charges were made?
That’s not true about activating a USAA debit card using information found in the card envelope itself. Either your identity was stolen or someone you know fraudulently used your card because the information required to activate the card is nowhere found on the envelope. Something is amiss here.
I’ve been with USAA a long time, the only way to activate is to call and confirm personal Information or log into their app/website…it’s really odd that someone would have enough info (usually including your USAA member number) to activate the card.
I grew up with USAA and got my own account upon commissioning back in the late 90s.
They went from the benchmark for customer service to such a complete shitshow that I dropped them from everything in 2020. Very Sad!
You can get a CC without Debit option so this kind of thing is impossible. Just tell you bank you want an ATM card WITHOUT Debit, and a CC. Debit doesn’t do anything except put you at risk.
USAA went down hill. I was with them for over 10 years…
I added my wife to my account, they sent her a debit card…then they decided they needed more documents from her after she was already added. We had to get my wife a new social security card to upload to them, and while waiting on the new social security card to come they decided to close out my accounts leaving me with no access to any funds, it was right before pay day so my paycheck had no where to go. My mortgage was due.
They said they sent me checks for the balances and id get it in 10-15 days. They wouldn’t even cancel those checks and overnight my money to me. I wound up having to borrow money from my dad to pay my mortgage that month and my wife’s parents gave us $20 so I could open a new checking account with another bank, but it was too late and I had to wait 2 more weeks til the following pay day.
It was a nightmare. We are a single income family and had a 1 year old at the time.
They were unsympathetic and unhelpful. Worst bank ever. And their savings accounts had garbage interest.
I hope you get this sorted out and take your business elsewhere!
This doesn’t help you now, but maybe for future.
I have two checking accounts. The first is my main account that holds all of my money. I have no debit cards tied to this account. The second account is my shopping account. I keep a balance of like $20 in there and only transfer money in from the main account when I’m headed out to make a purchase.
This way, if I lose the debit card for the shopping account or get hit with a skimmer at the gas station, they don’t have access to my actual money.
It’s a little bit of a pain in the ass at first to have to open the app and transfer cash every time I’m going grocery shopping, but it’s a minimal inconvenience and it just becomes habit after a while.
i’d start looking around at the people who live with you…..usaa is right you usually need to know non public information about the person.
No one has mentioned small claims court. It’s easy and fast to file, you don’t need a lawyer, and they have to defend it in your home county. It’ll cost them more than the money in dispute to fight it.
Well first evidence would be a police report, you were the victim of theft. Someone stole $2,000 from you.
Love how people say leave the big banks and go to smaller ones like usaa or a credit union but the service is still exactly the same.
Also when a bank gives you provisional credit it does not mean they ruled in your favor. It just means they will front you the money as a gesture of good will.
They probably ruled it not fraud since these transactions required your pin. You can’t brute force 1000 guesses on an ATM machine. Unless your pin is 1111 or 1234 it sounds like you’re the scammer
Just chiming in to say I stopped using USAA after I got t-boned by a teenager and they messed up the auto claim. 25 years as a member. They infuriated me so much I canceled two auto policies, a home policy, a checking account, two savings accounts, and two credit cards
Start changing passwords: cell phone account, email account, all bank and credit card accounts. PIN either should not have been reissued when the card was replaced; or it should have been separately mailed. Also, you should change the PIN now.
In any case, you never had possession of the card so it shouldn’t be your liability. But IANAL.
USAA has really gone downhill. It’s sad to see. Dealing with their insurance department has gotten noticeably worse over the years. I thought they prided themselves on serving veterans and military. Probably time to move on to a new insurance company.
Just to clarify. USAA didn’t screw you out of anything. Some thieves did. You may be angry that USAA doesn’t come to your aid, and perhaps they should, but they are not the crooks.
You can submit a complaint with the CFPB. However, please be aware that the purpose of the bureau is not get the bank to change their decision, but the purpose of the bureau is to ensure that the financial institution has strictly adhered to all regulations and laws when they made their decision.
Do you have any receipts or other documents of any sort that may be timestamped to show where you were located at the time the fraudulent charges were made? That would be one way to show that you were in a different town or state at the time the card was used.
Under Reg E, the financial institution is required to provide to you, on your request, the documentation that was used to make their decision. I would make that request, and probably do it by certified mail (so you have signature proof they received the request).
I would try to find out how the replacement card was activated. I don’t know their procedures, but they should have a record of the phone number used for activation, or the IP address used for activation. Show that these are different from yours.
Sue them in small claims court. They’ll have to answer and will then try to take you to arbitration. Importantly though, they’ll have an actual attorney with an office and there will be a judge and you can file things and actually talk to people. This is the best way. Screw their phone tree. This is what small claims court is for. You don’t need a lawyer to do it.
so, have you gone to file an official report to the local police? that’s the first step at this point, as it’s your legal statement to the fact that you did NOT in fact spend this money. It could be all USAA needs to rule in your favor, since you’re knowingly signing an official govt document that proves you’re not defrauding them. Otherwise, anyone and everyone could come out with these claims after receiving new cards. Do that first and report back please.
In all honesty, stop using USAA. They’re a scam of a company. Their entire business model revolves around pretending to be a veteran-exclusive benefit, when the reality is they’ll accept just about anyone under a vague excuse. I got screwed by them back in mid-2000s. I wouldn’t trust them for anything at any time.
Interesting. A couple of years ago I had my card compromised so I cancelled it and they shipped me a replacement. New numbers and all. Before I even received it, before I could even activate it, I had fraudulent charges on the new card! I wonder if someone on the inside is committing fraud now that I see this…
My bank allowed someone to go in person and open a new account in my name and automatically connected my existing accounts to the new account and set up overdraft protection. Though since they were able to do it without my login info, ID or debit card, it screams inside job to me. I only caught it cause I was logged into my account like 10 minutes later
ok i would avoid USAA if i knew what it was.
I don’t use a debit card, but did have a similar problem after divorcing my wife. She had access to my checking account, so I called USAA and told them the situation. They said no problem and sent me new cards. Apparently, I was supposed to call them again after getting the new card to remove my ex, but I thought everything was taken care of. Eventually, I noticed small transfers out of my checking account to my ex totaling a few thousand dollars, and USAA wouldn’t reverse them because I was supposed to call again.
Honestly this would happen with any bank debit card. Very little protections
CFPB? What’s that? Thank you
May want to file a mail theft claim with usps as well, they have their own division that looks into them.