The holiday did not materialise
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Following an email from a Working Lunch viewer, we look at two questions that arose from a holiday scam.
Firstly, what protection does your debit card offer if it used to purchase good or services you don't receive.
Secondly, if you've given someone authority to take money out of your account, what are your rights if they withdraw more than you've authorised.
It is a cautionary tale.
Florida bound
Viewer Peter Morrisey was searching the internet when he came across a site that implied he had won a two-week holiday and only needed to pay £598 to secure the booking.
Mr Morrissey provided Soho Vacations, based in Florida, with his bank account details and through his debit card authorised a payment of £598.
As a result of providing his bank details to the company, Soho Vacations then proceeded to make further unauthorised withdrawals from the account.
The holiday did not materialise. So where does Mr Morrisey stand?
Visa versus Mastercard
With regard to the holiday, whether you are covered or not depends on the type of debit card you use.
For visa debit cards (including electron and delta), which Mr Morrisey held, the user is covered under the cards 'goods not received' provision.
In a statement Barclaycard said:
"This transaction falls under the umbrella of a cardholder and merchant dispute as 'goods not received.' We are sending out a disclaimer to the customer to complete. Once signed and returned, Debit Card Services will refund the customer and 'chargeback' the merchant's bankers."
However, if Mr Morrisey had used a Mastercard (Maestro/Switch) debit card he would not have been covered for this.
In terms of the unauthorised payments out of the bank this is a clear case of fraud.
If you were to fall victim to such withdrawals you would be covered regardless of which kind of debit card had been used for the original payment.
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