Norma Brown wanted to help her estranged husband pay his phone bill. The Orange County, Florida, resident gave Spectrum his debit card in August to make a single payment that wasn’t from his account.
Brown says he flatly denied having his card registered, confirmed it was a one-time transaction, and even has paperwork listing it as such, per WFTV Action 9 (1).
Then Spectrum accused him again. And again. And again.
By December, four months of unauthorized monthly payments resulted in $884 being withdrawn from Brown’s account. “This is ridiculous,” he told Action 9. It wasn’t until I contacted the news outlet that Spectrum finally promised a refund — though as of mid-March, the money still hadn’t been refunded.
Under federal law, what Brown describes should never have happened. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), when a company sets up automatic debit, it must provide the consumer with a copy of their payment authorization (2); This is a clear and understandable explanation of how much and how often to withdraw money.
Consumers should monitor their accounts to ensure the amount and timing of transfers exactly match the amount they agreed upon.
Brown had documentation showing the opposite: a single payment made to someone else’s account, according to Act 9, with a note stating that card information should not be stored.
Spectrum did not respond to questions about its authorization practices, the news outlet reported.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, the situation could have turned out very differently if Brown had used a credit card (3). With a credit card, you won’t have to pay a disputed fee that’s under investigation; With a debit card, the money is already withdrawn from your account.
This is a distinction that Action 9 has previously documented. When a billing glitch caused insurer Florida Blue to overdraft some customers’ accounts by as much as $142,000, the organization made clear the real problem (4):
“With a credit card, if you encounter overbilling issues, fraudulent charges, or other charges you didn’t authorize, you don’t get any money. Once you report the error to the credit card company, the process of correcting the problem begins immediately.
“When errors occur in checking and savings accounts, money leaves your possession and it may take some time to get it back, and in some cases you may not be able to get it back.”
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According to the CFPB (5), a credit or debit card issuer typically has 10 business days to investigate and take action, but debit card companies have 45 to 90 days to fully resolve the matter, provided they temporarily deposit the disputed amount into your account first.
If your bank statement shows an unauthorized withdrawal but your debit card is not lost or stolen, you must notify your bank within 60 days (6) after the statement showing the unauthorized transaction was sent. If you wait longer, you may be required to pay the full amount of any transactions that occur after the 60-day period closes.
Unfortunately, Brown did not discover the accusations until December; Months had passed without a detailed disclosure review. This is an easy trap to fall into, especially when amounts become routine from month to month.
If you find yourself in a situation like Brown’s, here are the basic steps to take:
Contact the billing company immediately and request written confirmation that your card has been removed. Do not accept verbal assurance. Get it in writing, keep a copy, and note the date and name of the person you spoke to.
Notify your bank or credit union in writing At least three days before the next scheduled transfer to stop future automatic payments. While the notification can be made verbally at the beginning, it must be continued with a written notification within 14 days (7). Explicitly revoke the authorization given to the company in question and ask the bank to flag future charges from it.
File a formal dispute for unauthorized charges. You must report any errors to your bank within 60 days (8) after the first statement containing the payment is sent to you. Even if the bank allows online applications, submit your dispute in writing.
Your bank is required to investigate and resolve reported errors, and if the process takes more than 10 business days, your bank will typically be required to temporarily deposit the disputed amount into your account during the investigation (9).
If the bank or company stops, escalate. File a complaint (10) with the CFPB and your state’s consumer protection office (11). If the refund still does not occur, consumers can recover their actual losses (12); the amount is a legal sum of between $100 and $1,000, plus court and attorney fees.
Brown’s case is a reminder that slow-drip repeated loads (small enough to feel normal, large enough to pick up) can go unnoticed for months.
To make sure you catch errors in a timely manner, carefully review your account statements each month to check for charges you don’t know about or haven’t expressly authorized.
In the future, use a credit card, especially for one-time payments to someone else’s account. This way, if a company ignores your instructions, no money leaves your hand while you fight it.
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WFTV Action 9 – YouTube (1); Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (2), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10); Federal Trade Commission (3); WFTV (4); USA.gov (11); Cornell Law Institute (12)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without any warranty.
