Complaint Review: MetaBank - Internet

Purchased a PayPower prepaid card for my teenage daughter to use to access cash while in Italy as an exchange student for 6 months.  After she had some trouble with it in month 4, I called PayPower and they 'fixed' it.  I told them that it would be used in Italy as she was an exchange student and that charges in Italy should not be noted as suspicious, etc.  Later, they acknowledged that this note was attached to my account!

Starting about a month before she was to leave, she needed to get cash one last time to pay for her final expenses.  On June 21 (a Saturday) I called PayPower customer service to ask what the problem was (she had tried several different banks, several different ATMs, etc. and was getting desperate).  They told me that the Risk department had put a hold on the account as of June 2.  I had NEVER been informed of this and it was only a week or two after the travel note had been put in the file!  I was told that the Risk department would call me back in 3 to 5 days.  (!)  So on Monday, June 23, I called back and asked to be forwarded to the Risk department, explaining that we were talking about a teenager 'stranded' in a foreign country (she's 17 and living with a volunteer family through an exchange program)!   They told me that their Risk department was on the west coast and they didn't come in until 8.  I called back after 8 PST and was told that they didn't answer the phone, try later.  So I did.  FINALLY talked to someone in Risk on the 3rd try. 

Risk Dept told me that MetaBank had cancelled the account and there was nothing they could do about it.  Without informing me?  Where is my money?  After all it is a PREPAID card, not a credit card.  They said they would send it out by check to me.  I'll update when I see the money, but a check of the account online says that there is no longer money in the account ($357.56).  According to this account, they did refund the June fee that was charged 10 DAYS after the account was supposedly cancelled!

I told them that my problem was twofold:  1) WHY wasn't I informed that they cancelled the account?  (they claimed that the agreement says that they can cancel the account for any reason at any time...wow...that's quite the fine print! Particularly since it is a pre-paid card...)  and 2) WHY would it be 'cancelled' in the first place.  It was being used EXACTLY the way the card is advertised as being used AND I had informed them of precisely where it would be used and for how long.  I paid a monthly fee for this service as well as a transaction fee and a foreign ATM transaction fee and an additional fee everytime I added money to the card.  They were making plenty of money on the deal. And we were talking about a total of about $1200 over 6 months...not exactly money laundering!

Risk dept gave me the number for MetaBank Customer Service.  They told me that they had no record of the account being cancelled.  And even if they did, they couldn't tell me why it was cancelled for 'security reasons' even though I had provided all my identifying information to the person who answered the phone.  I haven't called Risk Department back to tell them that they are full of $%^& yet, but might.

They owe me $357.56 and an explanation.  In addition, it cost me $14.50 (half off because I think I pulled the operators heartstrings, considering the situation!) for transaction fee and about 3 hours time in order to wire the money through Western Union, which I think PayPower should reimburse me for, but I realize that's a lost cause!

If the reports I read hear are as real as I know mine is (I did nothing wrong, did everything according to the book, researched the fine print before using the card, etc.), then there is a serious problem with this company.