BOA Bank doesn't always notify you of online debits

[Micky]

The Bank of America and other banks I'm sure have a system where they alert you when a charge is made to your credit or debit card without the card being presented, like when you buy something online or pay a bill on the phone, or by mail.

The purpose is, for most people, to know when a charge is made that they didn't cause, a fraudulent charge, a theft.

It's important to know if someone is stealing money from your account. It's not nearly as important to be reminded of something you did within the last hour or 48 hours and you know you did.

Imagine my surprise when I learned today that they don't always notify you. It depends on "how the merchant presents himself". If he presents himself as having been paid online, by phone, or by mail, an alert is emailed (or texted) to the owner of the bank account.

If he presents himself as a store, a place one can go to in person, and pay at the cashier, presenting the physical card, then they don't alert you, because after all, you were there and you already know about it. BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A STORE to present yourself as a store.

I learned this only by accident today. Last Thursday night I bought three things, a used DVD for 7 dollars and a bathroom rack for $49.50 from separate Amazon-related dealers, but not sold or shipped by Amazon. And a $20 remote control for my TV, on Ebay.

For another reason, a story in itself, I got no confirmations of purchase and no receipts. Sunday, I checked on Amazon and both items had already shipped!**** Without my paying them, it seemed!!! Amazing. But I checked on the bank webpage and they had been paid. But I got no alerts. ****I got the DVD on Saturday, the remote on Monday, and the rack on Tuesday.

So I complained on Sunday. She filed a report. Today a nice man called and he explained that if a store sent in a charge, they didn't alert me, and afaict apparently any place can pretend to be a store.

He agreed with that.

But what about Ebay. Just last October, I got an alert when I charge $20 to Paypal, to pay ebay. So Paypal is not a store. Why didn't I get an alert this time. He said that when I pay Paypal, I'm not really paying them, they're just an intermediate, and I'm paying the actual vendor, and if he says he's a store, he's a store, even afaict if his address is a secret and no customer has ever been there.

I told him there was a big hole in his procedure and that they give the impression they will notify customers of every online purchase and they will eventually be sued big time when someone loses money. He said he'd put a report in to... I forget what he called them, or it.

So there you go.

And what good is it to be notified, alerted, if you can't count on always being notified? You can bet your bottom dollar that thieves will pretend to be stores. So only the honest places are causing me to be notified. I don't need these emails because if I ever needed one, better evidence would be my bank's statement or an image of my online bank statement. I've been wasting my time reading these alerts and changing the subject line to say exactly what they are for.

[taxed and spent]

{snip}

you need to set up the alert to notify you for all purchases.

[Kurt V. Ullman]

I do that with my BoA credit card. It isn't at all unusual for me to get email notification 2 days later. So the speed of this isn't all that impressive.

[Micky]

Then I'll be annoyed by all the ones I make in person, I will have to waste more time, and I will end up not being as careful to check every alert for validity.

More to the point, Why can't you rely on what they say they are going to do?

This is what it says "Debit card charge made online, by phone, or mail" but it doesn't mean it. It says nothing about how the charge is presented. Nothing about the charge labeling itself a store versus online. It says flatly that a charge made online will generate an alert.

[Kurt V. Ullman]

Since it IS BoA that we are talking about, the real question is why SHOULD you rely on anything they say?

[Micky]

I agree with you there -- for example, they used to reorder checks so that they paid the big ones first, if it would cause the account to be overdrawn, so they could charge already exorbitatnt overdraw fees for all the small checks, even the ones that came in earlier. I consider this outright stealing.

Wells Fargo did the same thing for more than a year after BoA got caught.

But I want to tackle one thing at a time, and people should be aware of their admitted failings. Things they say they do but don't.

This would be so easy to fix, I think. For one thing, they could hard code ebay transactions as all online. Or if they can't fix other vendors at that end, they should change what's written to the customer on the webpage.

[John]

I set up my bank's charge account so I get an email stating the balance owed every day even if its zero, which it usually is, so it doesn't matter what you use the card for, you are notified within a day at most.

John

[taxed and spent]

oh for heavens sake!

[Micky]

That's how people are. I'd be surprised if you're not the same way.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I'm not liable for fraudulent charges so I don't want to be bothered every time I use a card. Once a week I log on and check my balances, but that's all. Let them worry about the fraud.

I also have no idea why anyone would have an account at BOA anyway. IMO, worst bank on the planet.