Complaint Review: Paypower Metabank Blackhawk - Nationwide

On Thursday, January 29th, I called my prepaid debit card customer service (Paypower Metabank) to find out why my recently deposited monthly paycheck was unavailable. I learned that someone had called into customer service and using my identifying information, had them change the email address associated with the account. After taking control of the account, they were able to transfer funds out of my account. I learned that $500 was transferred onto another card (not mine) on January 27th and another $400 was transferred in the same manner on January 28th. At that time, I told customer service to flag the transactions and began the dispute process.

A similar event happened on November 29th when someone used my card to make withdrawals in Florida (I'm from Washington State) that totaled $844.65. When I reported this, customer service was able to replace the card and the funds within ten days. This time, after almost 4 weeks, the prepaid debit card company refused to be liable for these unauthorized transactions. It was only yesterday, February 25th, that the company finally canceled my card. In the four weeks between the time I reported the most recent incident that occurred on January 27th/28th and yesterday, when they finally canceled my card, someone was *again* successful at calling customer service and having them change my login credentials. This is what triggered me to call customer service again only to find out that they had never canceled my card from the most recent incident in January which occurred four weeks earlier. This attempt at gaining access to my funds occurred earlier this week on Tuesday and I noticed it on Wednesday morning and called them almost immediately.

Because of the negligence of the bank and the thief that stole this money, I had to make an emergency move out of my home because I couldn't pay rent, I spent a couple weeks struggling to feed my kids until I qualified for state food support, and I've been destitute. I'm desperate for resolution, but they say it's out of their hands.

The liability section of the cardholder agreement says that, "If you tell us within two (2 business days after you learn of the loss or theft of your Card or PIN and you are not protected by the Visa Zero Liability policy [I am not because it wasn't a point-of-sale transaction], you can lose no more than $50 if someone used your Card or PIN without your permission. If you do not tell us within two (2) business days after you learn of the loss or theft of your Card or PIN and you are not protected by the Visa Zero Liability policy, and we can prove we could have stopped someone from using your Card or PIN without your permission if you had told us, you could lose as much as $500, unless prohibited by applicable law."

I called them within one day of the event and it seems as if they're shirking responsibility for allowing someone to access my account. Multiple times, I've asked if extra security could be put on my account, but they've repeatedly told me that there's nothing like that available.