A friend's son recently lost his wallet which included his debit card. Foolishly, he had written down his pin and this was also in his wallet. Before notifying his bank, the person who found his wallet spent £10,000. This amount far exceeded what was in the bank account and the son did not have an overdraft facility. His bank has told him that he is fully liable for the loss because he had written down his pin.

Firstly, would writing down his pin be enough to make him liable for the entire amount and, secondly, did the bank have a duty to decline payments that so greatly exceeded the funds available?

Thanks

Well...a friend of mine had her money swiped out of her account after going to a bank machine. As it so happened, someone placed a scanning machine underneath the number pad where you punch in your numbers. Many people lost money that day. The bank didn’t reimburse her for a month! and it wasn’t a huge amount. Luckily she worked for a national law firm and uttered the word “litigation”...and whatyaknow..the money was in her account the next morning! That’s how litigation moves butts.

I think the bank should be responsible for allowing so much money to be taken when it wasn't even there in the first place. Of course, that's just my opinion, I have no idea what the law states.

I feel awful for that poor fellow.

I'm surprised the theif was able to use funds that weren't there. If we try to spend on our debit card when we don't have the money, the transaction is denied. Isn't this the common experience?

With debit cards it is quite usual for the amounts to be paid even if they are not avalable. I dont know what the legal position is with regard to writing down the pin. Has the person admitted that they did this? This wont help their case.

I'd say the bank will have a hard time. They uinappropriately extended credit that wasn't requested by the owner of the account. The whole point of a debit card is the ease of a credit card without the interest and being able to spend only what is in the account.

PLEASE keep us updated on how it turns out. This could be useful in the future for others.

I agree that it won’t help their case. I heard that they are coming out with electronic cash now. I am not sure how secure that will be either. So many don’t have credit cards and they are coming out with ways so that people don’t need them.

Has there been ny update in this matter? I was reading this topic over again and was wondering how it was eventually resolved.

Personally, I can't see how a debit card can be used to extend credit - it's only suppose to transact on money that is present in the account - if not, this is where a credit card shows it's difference.

But, as above, you should never write down your PIN and store it with your cards!

I think that in some way the insitutions for which you hold your money should take some responsibility when it comes to recovering your money. I think there should be some type of protection there. Why wouldn't it be?

It can be difficult if you maintain multiple accounts and the bank assigns you a PIN. I prefer banks that allow me to choose my PIN - I still keep different PINs but, as I chose them, they're easier to remember.

What bothers me in this whole mess is that the whole purpose behind a debit card is that you CAN'T go over the limit. Anyone can get one because there is no credit extended, it's the use of your own money.

Actually, I've been looking at this more carefully recently and I stand to be corrected - debit cards can actually be limited only by ceiling spend, rather than available cash. So it is actually possible to end up overdrawn on a number of debit cards.