Walmart Bank Not Willing to Reverse Fraudulent Charges
As if their credit card was not competitive enough, in terms of benefits, they are denying a Winnipeg couple reimbursements of $6,600 in fraudulent charges.
Basically, the couple was in Mexico, and their credit card and PIN were stolen. The PIN was probably stolen through a hidden pinhole camera at an ATM.
Walmart’s defence for not reimbursing is that because the criminal knew the PIN number, it does not count as a fraudulent transaction. Is it justified?
Walmart Credit Card Agreement
If you look at Walmart’s credit card agreement, clause 16.4 says:
- You will be responsible for transactions that occur under either of the following circumstances, unless you prove to us that you took reasonable precautions to protect and safeguard your Card and your PIN from becoming available or accessible to another person, but that despite having taken such precautions, your Card and your PIN or other security code were stolen or fraudulently obtained by an unauthorized person:
- if your Card is used at an ABM in conjunction with your PIN, you will be responsible for the full amount of any such charges to your account before we receive notice from you that your Card has been lost or stolen; or
- if your Card is lost or stolen and is used to obtain a Cash Advance other than at an ABM, you will be responsible for the amount of such charges to your account before we receive notice from you that your Card was lost or stolen, up to a maximum of $50
Seems like Walmart is well within their credit card agreement.
Conclusion
I hate to say it, but if you do not agree with their policy, then cancel their card or never sign up. Personally, I do not have this credit card and will continue to avoid it.
If it was a US based credit card they would have only been responsible for a maximum of $50.
Better than nothing I guess!
And THIS is the reason why I was against moving to PIN based transactions in the US. Its more secure, but policies like these are what the banks REALLY want, to stop the cost of fraud and move it onto the customer
Credit card companies are definitely putting more onus on the customer.
Walmart just looks like idiots here. Yes, there are surely bad apples that look to steal from the company. But I’d say this bad publicity is costing them more than 6600$CAD.
I never “feel bad” for the credit card companies. Ever. They are living well. Rest assured.
To be fair, their policy does say that they will not reimburse situations like this. So to me, it would be more their policy up for debate, not the $6,600.
Reason number 8 million on why never to do business with Walmart. You get what you pay for.
Freedom of choice!
Pin hole at the ATM? Oh please!!! How do you know it was compromised at an ATM via pin hole? Perhaps they racked up charges and bought stuff and tried to get out of it.
Regardless of how it was stolen, they will not be reimbursed anyway because of Walmart’s policy. So how their PIN was stolen is irrelevant.
There are 2 sides to this story. When did he first noticed his bankcard was missing? How long did they wait before they actually called and notified the bank? Why did they wait that long? And finally how do we know for sure that this couple didn’t try to scam the bank? Too many holes with their claims.
Actually it doesn’t not matter when they noticed, because the policy makes it clear that they would not be reimbursed anyway.
I think one of the biggest questions with this is – what other credit card issuers have a similar policy in that they would deny a refund because someone’s PIN got skimmed (assuming that is the full story)? I would definitely be inclined to avoid dealing with those card issuers.
Good point!
Isn’t the defense that they took reasonable precautions to safeguard the pin?
Too subjective. Because there is room for interpretation, the couple would have to escalate this to court.
For additional insight, I spoke to Capital One – they expressly stated this would be covered under Mastercard’s “zero liability” policy.
After digging a little deeper, I found one other Mastercard issuer – Rogers Communications – has the exact same clause as Walmart (https://www.rogersbank.com/legaldocs/en/rogers_bank_cardholder_agreement_oct2013.pdf – page 5).
I assume this means Mastercard allows retailers/issuers to change what “zero liability” means.
Thanks for sharing!