Victim of armed robbery must pay overdrawn amount to bank
April 25, 2015 at 06:30pm
By Angelique Arde
www.iol.co.za
A man who was held up and forced to hand over his bank card and PIN will have to repay R93 000 withdrawn from his overdraft facility, after the Ombudsman for Banking Services ruled against him.
This is one of the cases published in the ombudsman's annual report for 2014, which was released last week. The cases indicate how the ombudsman, Clive Pillay, may address similar complaints in future.
Immediately after his ordeal, the complainant went to a branch of his bank to stop his cards. Although his account had a balance of R800 at the time, the criminals stole R93 000 from his account.
The complainant wanted his bank to compensate him and to refund the related fees and charges. But the bank said it was not liable for the loss, because the transactions were performed using the complainant's card and PIN, and they occurred before the incident was reported to the bank. The ombudsman received proof from the bank that supported this.
The complainant said that some of the transactions reflected on his statement as having happened after he had stopped the card. However, point-of-sale transactions reflect on your statement only once the merchant has processed or "banked" them.
The ombudsman ruled that there was nothing the bank could have done to prevent the transactions before the cards had been stopped, and, therefore, the bank could not be held liable.
#BanksAreEvil
EUGENE PRINSLOO
Partner
Meecham, Prinsloo & Associates
Personal Debt and Insolvency Practitioners
We are not debt counsellors and we do not offer debt counselling as a solution.
Call/SMS/Whats App 0813166983
Email eugene@meechamprinsloo.co.za
Fax 0867644392
Do you know anyone that struggles with debt? Refer them to us and we will take good care of them.
We are also able to offer you a referal commision, so talk to us and let us know who you know that needs help, just send us their email address and we will do the rest.
