Well, it’s been an interesting few days, I must say.
On Friday, I looked at my PayPal account and discovered two $100 charges I hadn’t made, apparently to gas stations. (Turns out, gas pumps are the go-to place for skimmers to steal your debit card and PIN numbers. From now on, I’m paying cash.)
For some stupid reason, I thought the charges were mistakes that would clear up in a day or two. They didn’t. Instead, another $100 charge showed up on Saturday. I had to deal with this.
My stomach churned.
Meanwhile, the charges went through to my back-up funding bank account, where there was not enough money to cover them, and I wound up with a $35 Insufficient Funds fee.
By this time, I was hyperventilating.
I had already blown the budget a few days earlier when I brought Scout into the vet’s office to be spayed. What was advertised as a $120 procedure had ballooned to $252 after all the extras, like pain medication, intravenous something to make her more comfortable, and (what the hell) a microchip and nail clipping, were thrown in. I had to do some last-ditch scrambling to make sure it was covered.
Now, I was looking at a black hole that was sucking up money before I could even deposit it into my account.
You have to understand, my two greatest anxieties are money and phone calls dealing with money. Just because I knew somewhere in the recesses of my mind that a simple call to PayPal would likely solve the problem, I was too panicked to start dialing.
But I knew from experience that procrastinating would only prolong my misery. So I went to the PayPal website to find the phone number. While I was there, I deactivated the card and tried to cancel my bank account as the backup funding source. That didn’t work because, it said, there was still a pending transaction for $1. I didn’t realize that was the ‘authorization’ charge that would allow another charge to come out of my bank account.
I was in panic mode now so of course, I got on Facebook. A dozen people commiserated and several offered good advice: CALL PAYPAL NOW.
I took a deep breath and picked up the phone. Just the act of dialing calmed my nerves. (I say this to encourage you, if you suffer from ‘phone-phobia’ as I do, to think of that call you’re dreading as the actual relief you seek. Trust me, start dialing and you will feel better immediately.)
When the debit card agent came on the line at last, she quickly reversed everything and explained what would happen next. I hung up, greatly relieved.
Within an hour, the money was back in my PayPal account. I immediately set in motion the process of transferring it to my bank. Then I breathed deep again, called Wells Fargo, told them what was up, and was informed that the NSF charge would be removed as soon as the transfer from PayPal came through. All I had to do was call and let them know. (Another phone call, but at least it wouldn’t provoke so much anxiety.)
This morning, I checked my bank account, confidently hoping to see a $300 balance. Nope. It was $143. The $300 had been transferred in but another $100 (plus a legitimate charge of $57) had been taken out.
How could this happen AGAIN?
After a few stomach-flops, I ignored the urge to put this off until I felt better — I knew I wouldn’t feel better; in fact, I would only feel worse and worse until I dealt with it — and called Paypal again. Once again, the cool, calm agent took care of everything, explaining the the fraudulent charge had apparently been initiated before I had deactivated my debit card. No more charges could be made on it, she promised.
So, all is well (I hope) but let me reiterate for all my fellow phone-phobics: don’t wait for the anxiety to go away. It won’t, until you take action! Pick up the phone and start dialing NOW.
Oh — and pay cash for your gas.
p.s. Yes, I used writing this post as an excuse to put off calling the bank to get that NSF charge removed. Dialing now!
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LaVonne… I hope that your problem with the pay pal account and gas is over. I was reading about your ordeal and I was thinking that I use a credit card at the gas pumps. I use it, and then always hit the ‘clear’ button once the transaction is done… I generally hit ‘clear’ three or four times after I complete the purchase…I also carefully look at the card insert slot to see if it looks legit, or if it has been tampered with. Are you suggesting that this is not enough??? Please explain if I have missed something here. Thank For the Heads Up! Michael P.S. I really enjoy reading your pages.
Thanks, Michael. Yes, it looks like the ordeal is over. I just checked my bank account and about had a heart attack when the balance was about $200 less than I expected. Not again! But no, I had spent more than I remembered plus a bill on ‘autopay’ came out a few days earlier than expected. But the money was there to cover them both, so all is good. 🙂
Hi LaVonne! In February, someone tied their Target credit card to my bank account as a back up method and, all said and done, there were $800 that I had to recover. I completely freaked out! I had to close my old account and open up a new one and then transfer everything from one to the other. STILL dealing with it almost 2 months later. 🙁 HORRIBLE! Now I have a service from my bank that activates the app on my phone any time there’s a charge on my account. Annoying? Possibly. Anxiety calmed? Mostly. <3
So sorry this happened to you, Charlene. I HATE — okay FEAR — dealing with these kinds of things!
LaVonne – and everyone here’s a suggestion ~ If you can get your daily balance texted to you every day, it would help you to find unauthorized activity on your card more quickly. See if your bank or credit union offers this service ~ A similar thing happened to me in February. I was in Pahrump, NV. when I learned about it, stocking up for a Death Valley visit. I had all these groceries in my cart and my debit card wouldn’t work. Fortunately my credit union had noticed the odd behavior and but a hold on my card. I used my back up credit card to pay for the stuff, but then had to sort out getting a new card while on the road. The credit union assured me that it’s very easy to fix these problems these days as its easy to remove the false charges, they just have to know about them first. Then they sent me a new debit card (which I needed just in order to draw cash out). I had it sent to the Post Office at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, thinking it would take a few days. It took 9-days from Colorado to California (apparently this is normal for mail between those two states…eh!!! my mail gets to England in just 5-days) or less. Anyway, the good news is that I hiked most of the trails near Furnace Creek two or three times, and I got to see the Superbloom TWICE….ha ha. At first I felt like I was stuck in Death Valley, then I gave into the experience and enjoyed being stalled there instead. However, I’m going to keep using my debit card, but I think I now know what a skimmer looks like, and if I’m in a very busy tourist place, I’m also going to keep my card under my arm pit or something, to make it hard for someone to get the number by just walking by. Fingers crossed. I also get notifications every day of my bank balance, this way I can jump on it if I see any sudden drops in the balance. If you have a smart phone that these can be texted to, it would be even better (I have to have WiFi at this time, so its only partially helpful as I can only check it in McDonalds or a library or such. **** So sorry this happened to you, glad you survived. I too hate the phone call thing, especially as I have a pay-as-you-go phone at 10c a minute. I’m changing that this year, I hope. Roxy ~ http://NomadforNature.wordpress.com/
Thanks, Roxy! I will check out the text notification thing. So sorry you got stuck in Death Valley, but it sounds like you had a great time anyway. 🙂
Well the only safe way is to make your card non readable when you dont want to use it. Cheapest is aluminium /aluminim foil wrapped around the card. Or in something like an altoids metal tin. If the skimmer is on the ATM you need to not use it, the ATM that is, at a gas station with people milling about, the foil sheild works to stop anyone following you around. But it can not stop the employees doing it. I always refuse to put in my pin unless I have the card in my hand. Second some stores and gas stations here would take your card swipe it on the atm and then swipe it in their till system. I ALWAYS said NO to that some whinged some called the manager but I still would not allow it. “its how we match the atm to the till” said one or more, find another way I said.
My protection if you like is that I never have more than $100 in my account, and I get a txt from the bank if it goes below $20.00, yes I have cheap habbits, no smoke, no drink, no drugs , just the occasional chocolate bar.
There is another way to protect your cards in your wallet, keep the dead/ no longer used ones and put them in the wallet the same way around as the one you use, it totally confuses the skimming tools.
Good luck.
Ooh, that aluminum foil idea is a great one, thanks. Although I am pretty much never in crowds any more, lol. But sometimes even I have to go to the store.
Yet another example of why I prefer credit cards. They’re great if you know how to manage them. I pay mine off every month.
Ah, you assume I have good credit. Not so.