At the end of August, I was doing our budget and wanted to know how much I was paid. Usually, my husband recorded it on our budget spreadsheet. I have not opened our bank account for months. We used cash for groceries and the checking account for bills. My husband used his credit card for car gas and paid it at the end of the month.

Since he didn’t record my salary, I opened our checking account to verify the payroll. I scrolled down to check the other transactions on the page. I noticed some unusual activities. I opened prior months’ statements to see how far back in the past they happened.  The activities happened in August only. However, I remarked some credit card payments that were higher than what my husband recorded for gas.

I brought the unusual activities to his attention. He didn’t recognize them. I pointed out to his credit card payments. He didn’t have much of explanations to me either. I asked him to call the bank to report the fraudulent activities on our checking account. He did it. The bank checked the transactions and told him that his debit card was used to make these purchases. Since it was the weekend, the bank told us they would call us back during the week.

I asked him to open his credit cards online statements. It turned out there were fraudulent activities on 3 credit cards since April 2019. He didn’t check his monthly statements. He just paid the balance.

I used a spreadsheet to record all the fraudulent activities from his personal expenses for each one of his credit cards. He over paid bank of America by over $1,700, and Discover by over $270. The Capital one has pending activities of more than $800. He called Capital one to report the fraudulent activities. They cancelled them. He called Bank of America and Discover. He reached Discover easily and they cancelled the balance on his credit card. He later reached Bank of America which did the same. I asked him if he asked them if they would refund the amount he paid for these fraudulent activities. Bank of America said no. I told him to call them back and explain to them that he paid the bills without glancing at his online statement for many months until I pointed out that he was paying more than we actually spent on gas and requested to check the statements. After talking with different people,  Bank of America told him they would investigate the fraudulent activities and refund him.

He called Discover cards. He talked with different people there as well. They agreed to refund him the extra he paid. They calculated with him over the phone and since we did it on a spreadsheet at home, it was easy for him to point out what his cost was and the amount he paid in excess. They told him they would refund him the excess.

I asked him to ask the bank if they would refund us what was taken from our checking account. After few calls, the bank agreed and refunded us while they continued the investigation. The fraudulent activities on our checking account were little over $1800. All that totaled together was more than one month of my current salary.

Even though the bank credited us back, I didn’t want to spend like in a regular month. I suggested we don’t take allowances this month. We took grocery cash out but I decided to only purchase staples on sale or that are needed in the house.

We pulled his credit report from the 3 credit bureaus. Everyone has the right to pull a free credit report from Annual credit report site once a year. Thankfully, there was nothing fraudulent on it. I suggested he freezes his credit with the 3 credit bureaus. He tried to freeze it online but that requested to mail in some form of identification and bills with his name on it. I suggested he calls them instead to ask questions on what to submit or if it was better to put credit alert warning on his credit. With this alert, creditors would be very carefully if someone tried to apply for a loan or credit using his name. When he called the credit bureaus, he was able to request the credit freeze over the phone without the need to mail anything additional. They sent him a pin later. The pin would be needed to unfreeze it. A credit freeze prevents new creditors to check his credit report. His existing creditors could check his credit. But no one could apply for a credit or loan using his information. If my husband wants to authorize a creditor to check his credit, he has to unfreeze his credit few days in advance.

It has been a time consuming process to talk with the credit cards companies.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, report the fraudulent activities as soon as you caught them to limit the damage. If you paid some of the costs, request you credit card company to refund you.

Report any fraudulent activities on your checking account as soon as possible and ask the bank if they would refund you back. If you don’t ask, neither the bank nor the credit card companies would refund you.

The bank and credit card companies cancelled the existing cards.

 

How often should you check your bank account or credit card accounts?

Check your bank accounts daily or twice a day.

If you don’t use credit cards but have them, check them at least once a month.

If you use credit card for purchases, check your credit card transactions once a week and check your statements before you pay the bill.