Call Kurtis: Automatic Payment Woes
Automatic payments are supposed to make your life easier by electronically taking money from your bank accounts to pay bills on time. But viewers throughout Northern California are calling Kurtis Ming when they say too much money has been taken from their account. In fact, we have done four stories on this topic since January.
We told you how the gym kept taking money out of Donna Cantrell's bank account, months after she cancelled.
"I just want my $90 back that they owe me right now, and do not want them to take anymore money out," says Cantrell.
Ellen Dunn had the same frustration with a different gym.
"We just want our money back," says Dunn.
The Haywood's bank account went in the red when SiriusXM Satellite Radio mistakenly took a full payment out, when they only agreed to monthly installments.
"Don't let any company come into your bank account and grab money," says Consumer advocate Linda Sherry, Director of National Priorities at Consumer Watch.
Sherry says automatic payments pretty much give a company access to your entire bank account.
"You should control the payments out of your checking account, not the company," says Sherry.
Instead of automatic payments, she recommends scheduling online bill payments through your bank's website. Then you control how much you pay and when. If a company requires automatic payments Sherry suggest using your credit card, instead of debit card or routing number tied to your bank account.
"With a credit card, at least you can dispute that on a credit card. If it's a debit card, they may continue to take money out of your checking account," says Sherry.
When the charges don't stop, some say their banks won't help with refunds or by stopping future charges because customers did authorize the automatic deductions.
"They said best thing to do in cases like this is to cancel your checking account and start a new checking account," says Dunn.
She did exactly that and the charges stopped. But Cantrell didn't want to. After some persistence, she got her bank, Wells Fargo to block any future charges from her gym.
"I don't give up that easily," says Cantrell.
We have learned the Federal Reserve has a rule that says you can put a stop payment on a scheduled transaction (page 21). The request has to be done at least three days before the money is to come out of your account. Although, you might have to do it writing and your bank may charge a stop payment fee.
