I'm hoping that with the sheer number of people on here I'll be able to get some advice for my friend.   So here goes....  in the UK if you get a faudulent charge on your credit card then the bank covers you.  If you get a fraudulent charge on your DEBIT card then you're only covered over 100 quid.   So, my friend has found that a foreign company have taken many payments of 90 quid to the value of 6 grand from his account and cleared it out.   The bank are refusing to cover it because each transaction is below 100 quid.   So... what can he do to get his 6 grand back?  And why the hell are the banks allowing all these transactions with no fraud protection in place?   Thanks                                                                                                                                                                             

thats more than 66 withdawls i would go to the govening body omburds man and try to see if the bank are covering there tracks sounds like some cleaver sod has said if its below 100 quid we dont have to cover it     i know its a pesermistic veiw but i dont trust banks allso threten the bank with that TV program watch dog or some thing                                                                                                                                                                               

and what if the banks are right about not covering smaller payments (even 66 of them)?  As far as I'm concerned the bank has a responsibilty to protect MY money that I put in there, including stopping 66 duplicate payments to a non-EU country.   I once made 2 payments around the same time, similar price both around a fiver.  They were made on my CREDIT card and the bank blocked the payments until they'd called me to confirm.  So it seems like they're happy to protect their own money but not ours.   ???                                                                                                                                                                             

From a BBC report on this Matt, this is for debit cards not credit cards.   The law states that cardholders are not liable for fraudulent transactions as long as the original card is still in their possession.   Any bank or business turning down a refund request is on very shaky legal ground.   The problems arise when a card is stolen or lost has not been stopped and is then used fraudulently.   Under these circumstances according to the terms of the Consumer Credit Act and the Banking Code you are liable for damages up to a maximum of £50.                                                                                                                                                                              

hey Shell that's great thanks!  I've forwarded the info on.   Anyone got links to the legal docs to back this up?                                                                                                                                                                             

Matt I used to work for Barclaycard in disputes we used to also get people with Barclays visa debit cards come through disputing transactions on their card   If there was a fraudulent query on it the card was blocked whilst investigated even the smaller sums were refunded to the account until proved otherwise tell your friend to go back and query as fraud and not give up                                                                                                                                                                                 

Page 42 on this document Matt:http://www.bankingcode.org.uk/pdfdocs/PERSONAL_CODE_GUI...E_2008.PDF                                                                                                                                                                               

brilliant link, thanks a lot.   This has got to help                                                                                                                                                                             

I can't really see how the bank can argue against their own code of practice, so hope it does the trick for your friend.

I did hear a while back that banks are trying to make their customers more liable for fraud carried out on their cards - e.g. you have to prove that you conducted security checks on whatever company you dealt with online to ensure secure servers are being used and that their certificate's up to date & whatnot. They're losing gazillions in fraud every year, so they're looking for ways to avoid refunding money to people that's been stolen from them.

Your friend should fight this every step of the way and if the banking code of practice doesn't ruffle a few feathers, then I'd go for Watchdog - they'd surely be interested in a case like this. It's outrageous!

Matt something is amiss here, transactions made by a card can and will be picked up by the banks for example if you make a a withdrawal in London and an hour later a transaction is made say in Lisbon someone from the bank would normally phone you or they will cancel the card that they believe to be in the wrong hands this has happened to me. so for so many payments to have been taken they the bank that is have failed so you should have a case, you do need to see a banking omburdsman soon to settle it   best of luck to your mate   Ps tell hime to keep a closer eye on his account                                                                                                                                                                               

I tried to use my debit card to pay for a monts subs on BM and because I havn't registered it with the mastrecard extra security check it wouldn't have it so I asked my son if he could pay with his O2 credit card and he tried to transfer the £7 from my card to his as he had no money. The transfer was blocked and the bank rang me the next day to check with me if it was OK as it was not the normal sort of transaction on my account and had raised a red flag.   Point is that in my opinion ya mate's bank should have picked up in this at the start and got in touch before it got out of hand and perhaps have blocked the card until confirmed (this always gets you to contact them eventually).   I would give my MP a balst Do it online find ya MP etc. etc. here - http://www.theyworkforyou.com/