Someone stole all my money. Help!!

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Very good advice in this thread, I now know how I am gonna be safer with my money !.

Do banks have this fraud protection as standard ? or do you always have to pay extra for it? is this only an extra for debit cards or what ?

I just got a credit card cause I opened a student account, so I can now start using that instead for my purchases..

Leaving most of you money in savings is a good idea with it only accessible via web, but then whats the best way to keep you internet banking safe ? so that some douche doesnt get in and transfer the money to his account or something ?
 
Slinger said:
Very good advice in this thread, I now know how I am gonna be safer with my money !.

Do banks have this fraud protection as standard ? or do you always have to pay extra for it? is this only an extra for debit cards or what ?
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All banks must provide fraud protection.

Leaving most of you money in savings is a good idea with it only accessible via web, but then whats the best way to keep you internet banking safe ? so that some douche doesnt get in and transfer the money to his account or something ?
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Online banking doesn't really have any security problems, just don't respond to fake emails and make sure there are no keyloggers on your pc.
 
Energize said:
Visa debit cards have the same thing.



Yeah one phone call and branch visit and the bank sorts it in a few days, so much hassle...
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Yes, a branch visit IS hassle, this thread proves that it is a LOT of hassle overall in terms of the time spent worrying about it, and the leg work involved, it is very worrying when it is your money which has been stolen. And no, visa debit cards do not have the same thing. You are missing the point. Seems it is just you though, so it doesnt matter.
 
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Jez said:
Yes, a branch visit IS hassle, this thread proves that it is a LOT of hassle overall in terms of the time spent worrying about it, and the leg work involved, it is very worrying when it is your money which has been stolen.
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Seems to me like very little hassle, personally I pass by my branch every morning. As other people in the thread have said they only needed to make one call and had the money refunded quickly. Debit card paranoia is just uncalled for. We'll just have to agree to disagree.


And no, visa debit cards do not have the same thing.
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All banks issuing visa debit cards must sign up to the visa chargeback scheme which provides you with default protection.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/4260806.stm
 
Lucky you, however you can clearly see from this thread alone, not to mention saga's such as what happened with certain travel and stag do organisation companies, that it IS hassle, and causes a huge amount of stress and often financial loss to many people.

Visa Debit; they are better than most, and are certainly preferable to others, but it still leaves you temporarily out of pocket and puts the leg work on your side. Since buying on credit is completely without inconvenience 99% of the time, there is no reason NOT to play it safe and generally splash that around all over the place, rather than a debit card.
 
Hxc said:
If I was 18 I'd be using a credit card for pretty much everything, I tend to keep a current account with my solo/maestro with about £100 available at any time, then I have a minisavings account which is used for short time savings, and only accessable via web transfer.

Savings account somewhere else with a cash card and nothing else.

£4k in a current account really puzzles me.
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bigredshark said:
That is very solid advice, £4k in your current account probably isn't a good strategy for anybody.
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I have 5 accounts set up with Barclays.

  • 1) Visa Debit "Electron" - never any money inside, just the card I had when I signed up.
  • 2) Visa Debit "Connect" - Main account where day to day money is kept, actually a higher education account due to switch to a regular account.
  • 3) Reserve 1
  • 4) Reserve 2 (both automatically created when I signed up for online banking)
  • 5) Savings account - Online access only where I usually keep the majority of my money. Bit of a pain as the only way to get money in/out is through the internet, but this is where I keep 99% of my cash.

Just quoting to reiterate that the money was transferred from my savings account to the connect account because I was due to go down to the travel agents and pay off the honeymoon (to the Maldives) the next day, on my half-day.

I would never usually keep more than £300 in my connect account, just it was a one-off mistake that I got stung from.

Following from KaHn's comment.. I've just actually had a letter from Barclays saying that because it's been longer than 2 years since I graduated that I can either a) do nothing and my account becomes the standard account or b) pay £5 a month and upgrade it to the "graduate additions account" which offers free mobile insurance, RAC cover, fraud protection and a £1000 interest free overdraft :cool:

Also, in hindsight I should have just used my phone to go online and transfer the money when I got to the travel agents, but there you go.

I'll update when I get my money back.. just wanted to clear up some misconceptions about why I had all that cash in my account.
 
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Jez said:
And there were people calling me an idiot for commenting that all purchases are safer through a credit card, and that debit cards are simply dangerous and pointless.
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Absolutely! Why give a third party access to your bank account when you could give them access to someone else's money via a credit card? I never use my debit card for anything except ATM machines.

Energize said:
My advice is to put savings in an actual savings account, so this can't happen. Money should never be left idle in a current account as you are losing interest.
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Good advice.
 
DampCat said:
The irony. Your card was stolen by a good samaritan ;)
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Heh. The CC guy said that they were most likely testing the card to see if it worked before trying a large payment.

Nice to know they look for that sort of pattern really.

EVH said:
I would never usually keep more than £300 in my connect account, just it was a one-off mistake that I got stung from.
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Oh, that sucks. Seriously unlucky there :( I know from experience that there are times when you do need that much money in an account.

EVH said:
Also, in hindsight I should have just used my phone to go online and transfer the money when I got to the travel agents, but there you go.
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I personally don't trust a phone browser/connection to be secure enough to do online banking with. I only trust 2 PCs to do that. My one at home, and my one at work (that I installed and configured personally - another benefit of working in IT Support)
 
Mr.Clark said:
I personally don't trust a phone browser/connection to be secure enough to do online banking with. I only trust 2 PCs to do that. My one at home, and my one at work (that I installed and configured personally - another benefit of working in IT Support)
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If it wasn't 100% secure you wouldn't be able to connect to the banks server, so mobile phones are just as secure.
 
Surprised at the comments about having a few grand in your current account being a bad idea. For starters some back accounts require you have at least a couple of grand balance or being paid into it each month to enable certain benefits. Then there's mortgage payments that need to go out so in some cases these could also be a couple of grand. Add any loans and monthly spending then it's easier to see why a current account could have a floating balance of 4K.

Or maybe there's a better way to have this all setup?
 
GSXRMovistar said:
Surprised at the comments about having a few grand in your current account being a bad idea. For starters some back accounts require you have at least a couple of grand balance or being paid into it each month to enable certain benefits.
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Yeah but the money doesn't need to stay in there, just be paid in.

Then there's mortgage payments that need to go out so in some cases these could also be a couple of grand. Add any loans and monthly spending then it's easier to see why a current account could have a floating balance of 4K.

Or maybe there's a better way to have this all setup?
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Yes direct debit.
 
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It happened to me, I only got taken for 1450 though. The bank were awesome (NatWest) and I got my money back in about 4 days. I had to pop into the police station and get a crime number which took about 5 mins of form filling then a 30second phone call later that evening.

Nowadays pretty much all my purchases are done on my CC, all cash withdrawals are still debit though.
 
For those doubting the benefits of using a credit card. Like others, I always use credit cards, get upto 50 days interest free credit and pay it off. Improves my credit score as well. I'm only 20 have never had a job and am refused for nothing. No deposits or anything required.

http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/xlleisuregroup/
 
Jez said:
Direct debit's require the funds to be available.
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Debtor --> Current Account --> Savings Account --> Current Account --> Creditor.

The money is moved to and from the current account using direct debit, so money isn't sitting in the current account idle.
 
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Energize said:
Debtor --> Current Account --> Savings Account --> Current Account --> Creditor.

The money is moved to and from the current account using direct debit, so money isn't sitting in the current account idle.
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That is a very convoluted way of dealing with things for what would be minimal gain. All transfers would need to be extremely well timed given the 3 working days which most half decent savings account require.

This example doesn't exist in this case anyway, its fairly clear in the OP.
 
My mother and father had all accounts cleared, a lot of money was taken, at the time my dad was self employed and earning very decent cash, it crippled us for a short time, it was eventually reinstated and the police did nothing.
 
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