Netspend - Page 12

I have used Netspend for over 3 years, depositing paychecks and now my ssdi benefits monthly. I recently noticed that I had unauthorized charges to my account that had all been made to a card I had not used in 2 years. I immediately contacted Netspend to report the fraudulent charges. While making the report with them I began to notice more charges that I missed. In total 21 charges for small amounts ($.99 to $107.01).

During the time these charges began I had just received a large deposit from Social Security for back benefits so naturally I did not notice when $5.95 was charged to my card when I had over $10,000 available. It wasn't until I woke up one day and noticed a negative balance that I started my research. Immediately I began my dispute ordeal.

I quickly placed a report with the Police Department in Philadelphia and obtained the report # for Netspend and the merchants involved. I typed a very detailed letter including everything that Netspend asked me for. Also included letters from two merchants stating that the charges were found to be fraudulent and they were reversing the charges but could not do so without my bank cooperating (which they failed to do).

So 2 weeks after the initial dispute, I contact Netspend to get an update on the status of the investigation and I am told that I need to answer more questions about how my card got stolen! WTH! I included this information in the 1st letter sent to them. I am completely pissed. It seems that my misfortune is not a priority for Netspend. Now I have to continue to do my own investigation because they have not done anything. Please learn from my situation and do not ever use Netspend! I wish I had learned earlier!

I have been a NetSpend customer for 3+ years. I choose to come to them due to the ease of using the cards and the minimum fees. I went into an ACE location yesterday to withdrawal money for my rent total $1200, I was told that there was a new rule in place and they now charge to withdrawal money after the first $300.

This immediately alarmed me because I have not received an email, mail or text notification with any of this information. Although I did receive an email notification of their new elite program, I found this extremely odd. I asked why did they not inform their customers, his response was that it was posted on their website.

I said "Well this does not justify sufficient notification. Many people don't have regular access to a computer, and furthermore why go online if you can send a text to them for your balance?" The ACE employee of course could not answer. I then asked what the fee was, he said "2% of the withdrawal". I WAS IRATE AT THIS POINT. TWO PERCENT OF THE $1200 AFTER THE INITIAL $300 (I WAS CHARGED ON THE $900) TOTAL FEE $18!!! I am still pissed off - what a rip off.

I told him they are only doing this because income tax is coming and people are going to be pulling of large amounts - if you have $5000 being pulled out after the $300 they don't charge for that is $94 - that is a lot of money. I was thinking what if all I had was the EXACT amount I needed for my rent then I would have been short because of NetSpend's horrible business practices.

At minimum they should notify consumers at least 1 month ahead. He said they try to compensate by the lower $5 fee vs the $9.99 fee. There is no comparison, they are trying to get over because they feel that most people that have this card needs it because they can't get a bank account.

I chose to get this card because of the ease of use and no hassles with the bank. I make between $3200 - $3500 a month. I am not trying to throw money away by paying ridiculous fees to access money when I need it. It's not even reasonable withdrawal limit. Most banks allow $500 minimum withdrawal limit without any additional steps. I am outraged and will be closing my account before my next direct deposit. I refused to be taken by this monster of a company. This is truly a scam! I will be checking to see if they broke any laws by not providing sufficient notice of their changes. If they did I will be reporting them to every appropriate agency.

LOUISIANA -- On 3/30/09 I arrived home to find a nice, new NetSpend Prepaid Visa in my mail. This would have been fine except for one small detail... I did not apply for this card! I have no need to purchase a prepaid Visa card as I have two perfect, zero balance unsecured credit cards. The letter enclosed said that one of their partners had suggested that me and my 800+ credit score would be a good candidate for their card.

I called their customer service line and spoke to "Gracie" who promptly asked me for the last 4 of my social security number for verification purposes. I asked her how her company came to be in possession of my social security number or any other personal information. She then proceeded to tell me, "I don't see your number here, we just have to ask the question."

At that point I advised her that I was not stupid and I did not appreciate being lied to. I advised her that I did not apply for this card, did not want the card, and if I found that either NetSpend or Meta bank had run an inquiry of my credit I would seek legal remedy against them since I did not initiate any type of contact with their company. She advised me that the "account" had been closed and that she could send me a confirmation letter.

I asked if she could send it via email and before I could get my email address out.... she was reading it to me! As of this posting I still do not have the email, but it has only been about 20 minutes. I plan on contacting the credit reporting agencies tomorrow and my Better Business Bureau. Stay away from this company, as their practices are scary at the very least.

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- On 12/25/08 I discovered that 14 unauthorized charges were made to my Netspend debit card. I called Netspend and was HORRIFIED to find out that not only was all of my money taken but there wasn't anything I could do about it. According to Netspend, because these transactions are still "pending" I have to wait until they go through and then and only then can I start the dispute process (by the way the charges were all made on 12/24 and it is now 12/26 & they are still "pending").

Meanwhile I have $0 and I could be waiting for who knows how long to get my money back. The company treated me as if I were to blame for using my debit card online at some point in my life allowing someone to hack into my computer and gain access to my #. I was able to contact some of the companies that charges were made from and they were wonderful in immediately refunding my money when they realized that the billing address that the person who stole my number used and my actual billing address did not match up.

Another point I brought up to Netspend was how the transactions were allowed to be authorized if the billing address did not match up. They had no answer for this and continued to tell me that they couldn't do anything until the merchants collected their money. Many of the merchants were unable to be contacted because they are fraudulent businesses whose telephone numbers lead to nowhere or have been disconnected. I was informed by Netspend that many of these companies were associated with an online gambling site that is out of the country.

I am filing a complaint because of the inability and unwillingness of the company Netspend to answer for why they approved transactions when the billing address was incorrect and also for their "too bad so sad" attitude towards refunding my money or helping me expedite the return of my money from these fraudulent charges.

They made me feel like I was being punished for having my debit card # stolen and now I have to figure out what I am going to do for money until my dispute goes through. NO ONE at this company is American. That is to say that it is beyond obvious that the foreigners that have been hired to answer the phones are reading from a script and God help you if you ask a question that is not in their list of scripted answers because then they will just start talking to you about something else. If you are thinking of opening a Netspend account just light a match and set yourself on fire, it's less painful!

PHOENIX, ARIZONA -- My NetSpend prepaid Visa card was sent a few days ago. It is a permanent card to replace the temporary that I purchased back in January of this year with a 15 credit/balance startup bringing the total to 24.95 initially. This was done at PLS, a check cashing company in Phoenix at 38th St. and E. Thomas - this company is one of your authorized agents engaged in the purchasing and issuing of your NetSpend card.

This temporary card was never activated due to error in data entry by your authorized agent I was informed. After calling twice to your Customer Service number, I was told a copy of my social security card was necessary before my Visa NetSpend card would be available...this was extremely inconvenient as I had paper documents in storage in the 118 degree attic.

I had your PLS authorized agent call 2x to clear this matter up by validating what my social security number is since this agent cashes a SS check for me monthly for over 3 or 4 years. But that didn't seemed to be good enough for NetSpend. The NetSpend logic being that the NetSpend agent PLS could not be trusted to validate my SS number accurately even though they cashed my SS check monthly. Week and a half ago a PLS agent called NetSpend once again to straighten this out and insisted on a resolve of the card which was withheld for 9 mos. from my use.

Today when I called NetSpend to activate this permanent Visa received a few days ago in the mail your representative tells me there is zero balance...that the system automatically withdraws a fee from card after 3 mos. if there is no activity on the card. Well check this out...I expect NetSpend to then manually put my 15 dollar balance back on my card as I purchased originally. The card was never activated which means I didn't agree to your policies and fees, which you proceeded to execute and yet deny access to the use after purchase of the card.

I was put on hold waiting for a supervisor to resolve this matter with and yes, no one ever came on no supervisor nor the representative who put me on hold. Let's see if there is a response to this customer service email attempt. Because I find your customer service handling and actions questionable, I will begin with this email CC: to the Federal Banking Commission faithfully once a week as well as happily send each week anew this same email to state regulatory agencies (banking and financial) where NetSpend conducts business.

AUSTIN,, TEXAS -- First of all I would like to say I have also been completely happy with this company until this date. On November 3rd, this company's system/network went down. At the time I was out of town at a hotel in a rental car on my way home. My first clue was trying to purchase gas and my card was declined twice, as I sat on empty. As I have had two Netspend cards for years, I transferred part of the balance to the other card thinking the card was defective, but that card declined also.

My complaint is this though between the time their system went down and came back up 79.00 disappeared from my account. The complaint is no one is listening to me, helping me to resolve this. I have written email and have been told to pay 5.95 for a transaction report. I need to know what happened on November 3rd only that is apparently when the money disappeared. I don't have 79.00 to give to Netspend or cyberspace, so I'm done with this company.

A customer for over 5 years you would think they would be more helpful in resolving this matter. I also receive alerts on my phone from Netspend for all transactions to my account, which also stopped on November 3rd. Will you please resend my alerts I asked for the dates in question? They can't do that either, although they were sent to my email address, did you delete them, a business, I doubt it. I am wondering did anyone else lose money on this day in question. To my knowledge I wasn't able to get money for gas for my car from 3pm-10pm. If I had taken the rental car to the company, they would have repossessed it because I couldn't make a deposit.

But being stranded away from home with no gas is bad enough, but to have money disappear is hurtful, to have the company treat you like "Oh Well" is a travesty, they should make the evening news. Even though the company is in Texas, I purchased this product through the currency exchanges in the Chicago, Illinois area where they have a heavy concentration.

I have been using Netspend since they came to town, about 8 years ago (I am guessing). Once you realize the fees that are involved and use the card wisely, it provides a great service. I have run into the same problems as many of the reviewers.

I got gas once and had to wait a week to get my $75 back. After calling customer service I was satisfied that this was the fault of the gas station's pre-authorization method, and not the fault of Netspend. I have had an online company double charge me on a $12 purchase. The process was a bit much, but my money was quickly returned. I had a $3.00 charge to an airport in another country that was instantly returned when I called customer service. I didn't even have to file paperwork for that one.

Most of the reviews I have read have been the fault of company taking the card, not Netspend themselves. I think some of the reviews give Netspend an unfair shake. If you aren't aware that gas stations can hold a large amount of your money when paying at the pump, you shouldn't blame Netspend for you not knowing. If a merchant double charges you, it isn't Netspend's fault. Be patient and provide Netspend with the information and they will get the money back for you.

There are some things that are getting ridiculous with this card though. The ATM fee has been raised to 5 bucks... 5 bucks, can you imagine paying 5 bucks just to get your money off a card?? Give me a break. Greed never got anyone any business. Luckily they have kept the per-charge fee at a dollar which is fair. As long as they don't raise the fee to add money to the card, which is 3 dollars, and they don't raise the fee over a dollar to use it... I think the long term users like myself will stay loyal to the card.

It is pretty convenient to never have overdraft fees, and I have overdrafted my account somehow a couple times, but was not charged, and that is fantastic because I would have cut up my card if I had. My advice to Netspend would be: get more bank backing aside from Meta who has been caught being crooked. Don't start getting greedy at our expense. The fees you are charging right now is probably the very maximum you will be able to charge and still keep your customers. Don't Get Greedy.

But as far as customer service, so far I have always talked to someone in America when I called. That is a good thing. They haven't started outsourcing their call center to Zimbabwe yet... That will help keep jobs local. So I am happy with that. And they have always been friendly, and have taken care of my problems.

NetSpend is a great card. I got one because my daughter was out of town and I was sending her money Western Union. It is really only $2.00 to load any amount. I can transfer to her from my card or load directly to a backup card we both share. You can have more than one card, either linked or separate. I have one for just paying online bills, great for tracking your expenses. Pay the $9.00 monthly and certain transactions are free. You get to choose what works best for you.

My daughter was going through a divorce and this was great for her because she did not have to try to clean up her credit that her ex-husband had messed up. Savings great. They explain the process if you READ it. Don't use the card at gas stations pumps. Go inside and charge amount you want or get money from ATM. The money is available instant after loading.

My daughter was out of gas and at the service station... I only had $15 total. Loaded $13 ($2 load). Transferred her $13. She was able to get $10 gas within minutes without having to go to a service. We've been members for about 4 yrs. After a period of direct deposit you are eligible for cash advance which you can get approved and not use if you don't want but you don't have to go stand in line. They get it back with your direct deposit.

Overall, this is a great card too for those who have family members out of state or border countries. You can load here and they can pull off where they are and don't have to go to the wire transfer services. Great for proving you paid a bill and showing your monthly expenses if you use it to pay your bill.

I highly recommend, just take the time to read the rules and start off with small amount and only load what you want to track. If you don't, just take it all off once it's direct deposit if that's your choice. I love the card and MY daughter does too... Great for sending GRANDMA GIFT.

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- STAY AWAY FROM NETSPEND! AVOID THEM! THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL, INCOMPETENT, FEE HUNGRY PARASITES! Bought an All Access Prepaid Visa from a large local grocery chain in my city. My daughter is soon headed to college so for her birthday, I thought it would be great to get her a card so that she would have access to cash to make purchases. Paid $9.95 for that card and loaded $100 dollars on it. When my daughter attempted to activate the card, they refused, stating that they would need for her to fax additional information in order to "validate" her account.

When asked why they simply repeated the information stating that she would be able to use the card 48-72 hours after the information was validated. This made no sense. The card was paid for and loaded with cash, yet she would not be able to use it for almost three days!?! To make matters worse, when we went online to activate as the phone prompt offered, the system indicated that there was a problem with the account, and that we would need to call customer service. In total, six different calls were made to NetSpend, and each time the non-English speaking representative on the line provided no service, no answers and no card activation.

What's laughable is that you all of this great service for a service fee of $1.00 per transaction every time that you make a purchase. I'll be going back to the point of purchase ASAP to get a refund and let them deal with NetSpend to get their money back. Hopefully they won't get Kyle, Leslie or Charles on the line (of course not their real names).

Again I say, STAY AWAY FROM NETSPEND! AVOID THEM! THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL, INCOMPETENT, FEE HUNGRY PARASITES! The good news is that I'm only $100 into this thing... bad news is that I would have been better off giving my daughter the Benjamin. Live and Learn! One last word... STAY AWAY FROM NETSPEND! AVOID THEM! THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL, INCOMPETENT, FEE HUNGRY PARASITES!

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- On March 12, 2014 at 7:02am $55.00 was deducted from my Netspend account. 7:36am an additional $55.00 was deducted out of my account. I called Netspend only to find that the call center didn't open till 8am. 7:48am $125 deducted from my account. 8am I call Netspend and inform them of fraudulent activity and that purchases were being made from my card that I have PHYSICALLY in my hand in Miami, Florida and I am PHYSICALLY located in Chicago, IL. Netspend response is that the transactions that were made are currently pending and wait 24 hours to dispute the charges.

8:48am $125.00 deducted from my account. 11:08am $87.10. I call Netspend and inform them of an additional charge that has been made. Same previous response was given. 11:25am $55.00 deducted from account. I call Netspend to request they block the card immediately and send a new card. I assumed that I was going to be sent a new card.

Today is 3/14/ 2014. I called in to Netspend to review information about my card because I can't even check my account online. I asked several times to speak with a supervisor because the representative obviously didn't understand that I HAVE NEVER SET FOOT IN MIAMI FLORIDA. Also, she asked did I spend $250 dollars at a gas station? My response, "I DON'T OWN A JET." I sent in a dispute letter as told and then told an investigation will be determined after 10 business days.

I was saving almost 1,000 dollars for one special day. I have been with my husband for over 6 years, married only 2. The first year married he was overseas. This is basically my 1 year anniversary. However, some disgusting dog had easy access to my information and now Netspend is making me suffer.