The majority of people do not think anything of it when they hand over a debit card to purchase something, but not those that have been burned by debit card theft, debit cards that can be used like credit cards to be exact. Last summer, a native of San Jose, California used his debit card to book a rental car that he planned to drive from Memphis Tennessee to Saint Louis while he took a vacation over there.

The car supposedly would have cost him about two hundred and forty dollars. When he went to buy something in Memphis, he found out that his bank account had been frozen. What had taken place was that the rental car agency had placed a five hundred dollar hold on his account, an amount that was large enough to trigger a fraud alert at his bank. The man got his account reactivated almost immediately, but the five hundred dollar hold remained. Not even until he turned in the car, but for two days after the fact.

This victim may have gotten off a lot easier than others. Three years ago, an identity thief got a hold of a woman’s debit card number and made six hundred dollars worth of fraudulent buys with the card. Going back and forth between her bank and the merchants took up a lot of time and caused a lot of emotional pain and distress.

Eventually, she received some of the charges that were illegal made back, but was not able to recover almost one hundred and sixty dollars worth of the charges. The victim believes that because her loss was so small, it really did not receive any attention from the police. Unluckily, what is not a big deal for law enforcement obviously has a big impact on someone that is struggling to pay their bills.

Another Michigan denizen experienced a similar situation a few years ago. Article will be continued in parts two and three.

Rapid Recovery Solution is a commercial debt collection company.