Our Trip Money is Gone!

[caburrid]

My husband and I opened a checking account about a year ago as we never got to take a honeymoon and planned on going to the Keys for some diving early next year. We have put in the odd amount of extra money we get here or there, but I just went online to check the balance and it shows that it is zeroed out! HOW THE HECK DOES THAT HAPPEN?!? I am seriously hoping that it is an internet error, and my hubby swears he hasn't purchased any gear or anything...I am freaked the heck out! I have to call in the mornign to see what is going on....has anyone had this happen to them???

[Lulubelle]

Originally Posted by caburrid

My husband and I opened a checking account about a year ago as we never got to take a honeymoon and planned on going to the Keys for some diving early next year. We have put in the odd amount of extra money we get here or there, but I just went online to check the balance and it shows that it is zeroed out! HOW THE HECK DOES THAT HAPPEN?!? I am seriously hoping that it is an internet error, and my hubby swears he hasn't purchased any gear or anything...I am freaked the heck out! I have to call in the mornign to see what is going on....has anyone had this happen to them???

I have not but I just had a friend who had his card number and pin stolen from an ATM and the account was debited. The bank is responsible in these situations I believe.

Have you looked at your transaction history?

[Rileybri]

Oh man that SUCKS big time! My sister in law just had her debit card compromised from some scammer in Spain, but her bank caught it froze the account and called her asking "are you in spain?". when she reported she was not they changed all of her acct #'s and issued a new card. No money actually went away. Can you look at recent transactions via your online access? You should not have to wait till the morning to clear this up. If you do you need to change banks when you get this cleared up. That said for your husbands sake I hope he did not get gear with the money!!

good luck!!!!

[PTAaron]

Ditto to what they just said... check and see if you can view recent transactions. You should be able to see the money going in - and if it did go out somewhere, you should be able to see that too.

[Diver Kat]

Have you had any previous issues where your funds would have been transferred to a new account number? Such as a lost or stolen checkbook? I work at a bank, and there are any number of reason for an account to be moved to a new number, but none that I can think of where at least one of the account owners is not involved. Hope everything works out in the morning!!

As for unauthorized withdrawals from ATM/debit/check cards -in general the bank takes the loss, but only as long as it is reported by the account owner within a specific time frame. If you don't keep up with your checkbook and don't report the fraud for months, you will be out of luck. I'm always surprised by how many people don't balance their checkbook, or even look at their account for months.

[mrmccoy]

My bank does that from time to time. It may just be an error in the system......I sure hope it is!

[mike_s]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

[

I have not but I just had a friend who had his card number and pin stolen from an ATM and the account was debited. The bank is responsible in these situations I believe.

Have you looked at your transaction history?

I think most banks policy is that they are responsible for only a certain time period after the "transaction".



For example, I ordered a magazine from a magazine seller on EBAY. They said it would take 12 weeks to get my subscription in the mail. well after 4-5 months I remembered I hadn't gotten it yet and contacted PayPal to file a greivence as the seller wouldn't answer PM's., etc.

PayPal said it was past the time they allowed to go back on the transaction.

I think the same thing is true with regular banks.

BTW.... never buy any magazines from BlueSkyMagazines on Ebay.; Scuba Diving is one of the ones he sells.

[tonka97]

Originally Posted by caburrid

My husband and I opened a checking account about a year ago as we never got to take a honeymoon and planned on going to the Keys for some diving early next year. We have put in the odd amount of extra money we get here or there, but I just went online to check the balance and it shows that it is zeroed out! HOW THE HECK DOES THAT HAPPEN?!? I am seriously hoping that it is an internet error, and my hubby swears he hasn't purchased any gear or anything...I am freaked the heck out! I have to call in the mornign to see what is going on....has anyone had this happen to them???

Suggest: Online banking, and frequent perusal of your balances. Bill payment is also a breeze.

It appears that you are out of touch with your banking accounts, so it is likely that you may have looked at a closed account, instead of that extra checking account.

Hope so!

How about updating your avatar to show all 3 children? I want to see your new twins!

Congratulations.

[neugierig]

a different thing happened to me. i logged into my account and was surprised to find i had a $-888,888,888,888.88 balance on my checking account

turns out they froze it since it had some suspicious transactions.

a call to the bank customer service dept sorted it out real quick.

[scubadiver888]

Originally Posted by caburrid

My husband and I opened a checking account about a year ago as we never got to take a honeymoon and planned on going to the Keys for some diving early next year. We have put in the odd amount of extra money we get here or there, but I just went online to check the balance and it shows that it is zeroed out! HOW THE HECK DOES THAT HAPPEN?!? I am seriously hoping that it is an internet error, and my hubby swears he hasn't purchased any gear or anything...I am freaked the heck out! I have to call in the mornign to see what is going on....has anyone had this happen to them???

As everyone has been saying, there are a few possible things that happened. The bottom line however is that the banks deal with this stuff all the time. They should have things in place to protect you and themselves.

Talk to the bank. CALMLY find out what happened and how they can fix it.

Just like in scuba diving... don't panic!