<BreadWithSpam[at]fractious.net> wrote in message Transfer Act" is also quite
interesting.
- quote -

as your credit card accounts. I quickly scan mine almost every
business day and recently found an incorrect charge on my CITI
cc from Paypal. They (Paypal) quickly corrected the error (?)
before the credit card statement was issues.

BeachBum

Douglas Johnson <post[at]classtech.com> writes:
- quote -

Under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (1978), the
customer must contact their financial institution
no later than 60 days from the first statement which
shows the error. If one calls (rather than writes),
one may be required to submit information in writing
within 10 business days.

One's loss for unauthorized withdrawals (usually meaning
lost or stolen debit cards) is limited to $50 if you
notify the financial institution within 2 business days,
or as much as $500 if the error is spotted and reported
within that 60 days. An error which sits on one's
statement without being reported for more than 60 days
may subject one to *unlimited* liability.

(that's all according to the law. Some banks give
stronger protections to users of their debit cards,
but it's unlikely that they'd offer stronger protections
for outside-authorized ACH "pulls" - like having your
gas company or cell phone provider auto-debit your
account)

There's an interesting page at
http://federalreserve.gov/pubs/consu...electronic.htm
about some of this, and a little googling on
"Electronic Funds Transfer Act" is also quite interesting.

Anyway, while that "15 days" sounds a little suspect,
the general gist of the story - which is that if one
allows outside folks to pull $$ from your account
(especially as opposed to you pushing it out), watch
that bank statement *carefully*.



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BreadWithSpam[at]fractious.net wrote:


- quote -

That is really, really, important. If some company's computer hiccups and pulls
to much money, not only do you risk other bill payments failing, but the power
is in the company's hands. They've got the money and you have to persuade them
to give it back.

I know of one case where a guy had a cell phone company pulling from his
checking. They pulled too much. He protested. Turns out the fine print said
he only had 15 days to protest. It was slightly longer than that, so the
company said "tough".

-- Doug

BreadWithSpam[at]fractious.net wrote:
- quote -

I prefer the 'push' as well. Having too many companies pulling money
from my checking would seem a bit risky.
If the OP had auto-pay with money pulled right out, how was any late fee
involved? I never understood original issue completely.
JOE

"BeachBum" <bbghq35[at]yahoo.com> writes:

- quote -

Unfortunately, the management of such things tends to
be messy. I do not allow anyone to pull money from my
checking account (except, at the moment, my mortgage,
but that'll change soon). I very much prefer to push
money from my checking account (ie. electronic billpay).

That way I control all the transactions.

Automatic debit is nice in theory, but in practice,
dealing with errors, turning it off, etc can be a
huge pain.

Most checking account billpays nowadays, after you
make the first payment to a given biller, can tell
you whether they had to cut a paper check or were
able to do a faster electronic transaction.

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