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I've been reading that ATM skimming is a fast-growing and lucrative crime and consumers should be very careful. Normally I think the customer is limited to $50 liability if they report in 2 days, and $500 if they report within 60 days.

However, Bank of America has this "$0 Liability Guarantee" aka "Total Security Protection" thing within 60 days:

http://learn.bankofamerica.com/products/managing-credit/0-liability-guarantee.html http://www.bankofamerica.com/deposits/checksave/index.cfm?template=checkcards_tsp

The first link seems to cover any fraudulent use of your cards, but I guess they could say the physical card wasn't fradulently used. The second link only says if the card is "lost or stolen", but I always had the impression it included fraudulent transactions online, in which case the physical card itself was neither lost nor stolen.

Opinions? What do you guys think? Have you read about or do you know about any actual instances and who was held liable, BoA or not?

I rarely check my statements during my Ph.D. work, but then I have little enough money that any significant loss would be apparent pretty quickly.

Chris W. Rea
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Paul
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2 Answers2

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I think you are not liable for unauthorized charges (on your card) no matter how the number was lost. Most banks now apply a $0 liability for card losses. Some say they use the $50 per day (legal) liability limit but I have never heard of any actually applying it to their customers.

Mark Ripley
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Vitalik
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Generally speaking, most banks do like having you as a customer, and will refund "provably" fraudulent charges without regard as to the actual how it happened. The problem with ATM skimming is that while they are investigating, you don't have the money, vs credit card numbers being stolen, you don't have to pay that charge. So, even if it is actually fraudulent, you're still out the money until the investigation completes.

Aaron
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