Likely yes!
Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, you first must notify your bank about the unauthorized transfer. Your bank then has ten days to investigate the issue. Suppose the bank can’t complete its investigation within ten (or 20) business days as applicable. In that case, it must generally issue a temporary credit to your account for the disputed transaction amount, minus a maximum of $50, while it continues to investigate.
Suppose your bank determines that the transactions were authorized. In that case, it must provide you with written notice before taking the money they credited you out of your account during the investigation.
In some situations, however, your bank does not have to issue a temporary credit. For example, it can require you to provide written confirmation of the error if you initially provided the information by telephone. If they ask you to follow up in writing but you do not do so within ten business days, the bank is not required to credit your account temporarily during its investigation.
August 14, 2024
Someone hacked your bank account! Will the bank refund the money you lost?
The short answer is maybe.
First, we need to know where to look for answers. Florida Uniform Commercial Code Article 4A deals with electronic funds transfers. This law outlines the bank’s and the customer’s rights and responsibilities and explains who’s responsible for unauthorized transfers.
Under this law, banks must refund unauthorized transfers for up to one year after they’ve notified you (typically through your monthly account statement). This allows you to spot any suspicious activity and report it to the bank.
But there’s a catch. According to the law, a bank can sometimes shift the risk of loss for unauthorized transfers to you.
Here’s how:
- The transfer is considered authorized if you or your authorized agent approved the transaction (even if it was by mistake).
- Suppose you and the bank agreed to use a security procedure (like a PIN) to verify payment orders, and the bank followed that procedure correctly. In that case, the transfer is also considered authorized.
- Additionally, suppose the security procedure is deemed “commercially reasonable,” and the bank accepted the transfer in good faith and followed all agreed-upon instructions. In that case, they might not be liable for refunding the money.
The idea behind this law is that the best way to prevent fraudulent transfers is by using robust security measures. If a bank doesn’t have a reasonable safety procedure or if it has but fails to follow these procedures and accepts an unauthorized payment order, it would have to take a loss.
So, whether or not you’ll get a full refund depends on whether the bank followed a reasonable security procedure.