topic Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised in Personal Finance

Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 15:27:22 GMT

GRRR! Until November of last year I didn't have any credit cards so I did all of my online shopping with a prepaid Blue Bird Debit Card from Amex (I was afraid to put my banking debit card info online since I'd had both accounts compromised in the past). It worked well for me...until it didn't!

Since getting credit cards I've been diligent in NOT using debit cards online for fear of fraud and less protections than what credit card companies offer. Everything was great...until it wasn't!

This morning I awoke to 32 fraud notificaitons from Amex Bluebird that someone (or several someones) was attempting to make charges all over th place, including Dubai and Germany! Thankfully Amex shut them down before they drained my entire account. But they DID manage to make $92 of charges (netflix, uber, spotify, ali express, facebook virtual goods, etc) before Amex caught it.

I now have the pleasure of waiting 10 days to get a new card in the mail, and must wait for all of the pending charges that didn't get declined to post and dispute them all. A hassle I neither asked for nor want from a card that's been locked up in a safe for the last 6 months.

I'm not even sure why I'm posting, frustrated, needing to vent, wanting to warn others about debit card use (even though I have NOT used the thing in ages), wanting to praise Amex for at least not letting 32 of the 43 attempted charges go through, something else, nothing else? I don't know. Just a bundle of anger right now that it happened.

I don't know what to do next. Since nobody physically had the card, I'm sure the compromise happened online. But where? Do I go to every site I ever might have used the card at and make sure I have no stored cards in my account? I already monitor my credit like a hawk, my TU, EX and EQ are frozen, every card I am not using that allows freezing and unfreezing is frozen/locked.

I guess I just go on living my life as normal and TRY not to get too bent out of shape about this, it could have been so much worse had it not been Blue Bird and had actually been the account I use to pay my credit card bills with (after using CCs to pay my other bills). I feel violated!

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

JoeLuvsHisCredit — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 18:10:02 GMT

So Sorry HUGS

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 18:39:56 GMT

Of course, the problem is, you use a card somewhere, and the info is now on someone's computer, and if it gets compromised and the information stolen, your card then has fraudulent transactions on it. It could happen in a day, or a year later.

At least you're getting a new card with a new number, and since you aren't using it there shouldn't be any more fraud on it.

This is why ALL card issuers (debit and credit alike) should allow for virtual, one time use card numbers with short expirations and amount limits. I love BoA's ShopSafe for this reason. I think the chips use an encryption method that creates a one time use token as well. Unfortunately, many places (including gas pumps) still require using the mag stripe swipe.

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

jjmac10 — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 16:30:14 GMT

I have a similar card to the BlueBird, the Amex Serve Card which has some differences in fee structure and options. I use my Serve for "Swipe" transactions at merchants that are not EMV yet, and for some Online as well. I realize the inherent risk with this use but I try to mitigate that by keeping a much smaller amount of funds on the card and reload it every two weeks or so.

My understanding that in the General Prepaid Card group of issuers true Fraud prevention and detection is not the norm. I have read that Chase Liquid and the related Major Bank issued Cards that are essentially Limited Access checking accounts do indeed provide monitoring and will freeze cards that they detect fraud on. Some of the others may not offer any such monitoring and would likely allow ALL available funds to be drained. That situation happened to a friend who had a Green Dot card and they were wiped out in minutes and it took about 30 days to get the funds restored and spent a lot of time doing it.

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 19:36:12 GMT

@jjmac10 wrote:
I have a similar card to the BlueBird, the Amex Serve Card which has some differences in fee structure and options. I use my Serve for "Swipe" transactions at merchants that are not EMV yet, and for some Online as well. I realize the inherent risk with this use but I try to mitigate that by keeping a much smaller amount of funds on the card and reload it every two weeks or so.

My understanding that in the General Prepaid Card group of issuers true Fraud prevention and detection is not the norm. I have read that Chase Liquid and the related Major Bank issued Cards that are essentially Limited Access checking accounts do indeed provide monitoring and will freeze cards that they detect fraud on. Some of the others may not offer any such monitoring and would likely allow ALL available funds to be drained. That situation happened to a friend who had a Green Dot card and they were wiped out in minutes and it took about 30 days to get the funds restored and spent a lot of time doing it.

YIKES!!!!!! In that case I'm even more thankful that Amex BlueBird was on the case. I, like you, usually only leave a small amount of funds on there ($75) and HAD it reloaded each pay period with a direct deposit. But because I hadn't used it for 5 payrolls there was $375 there. I've cancelled the direct deposit and will transfer all that's left but $5 out to a real bank account as soon as I can. I've read horror stories online about the difficulty people face in getting their funds restored. I hope I can get every cent back but if for some reason I cannot I'll count this as a $92 lesson in "don't leave funds on a prepaid debit card" Not sure if I'll cancel completely since maybe one day it could be useful. But it will NEVER again hold more funds than I plan to use in a few days.

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 19:51:47 GMT

May I ask, what do you need the Bluebird card for? You have credit cards, correct? I have a Bluebird card, but never keep any funds on it. I just use it to unload Gift cards that I may get from time to time.

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

jjmac10 — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 19:57:47 GMT

Bluebird and Serve allow for No Fee MoneyPass ATM access. Useful as a quick cash card if needed. In my area there a quite a few Moneypass ATM's and they are usually in "Good" Bank locations. Some "Allpoint" ATM's are kind of scketchy aroung these parts

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

jjmac10 — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 20:05:31 GMT

@Anonymous
YIKES!!!!!! In that case I'm even more thankful that Amex BlueBird was on the case. I, like you, usually only leave a small amount of funds on there ($75) and HAD it reloaded each pay period with a direct deposit. But because I hadn't used it for 5 payrolls there was $375 there. I've cancelled the direct deposit and will transfer all that's left but $5 out to a real bank account as soon as I can. I've read horror stories online about the difficulty people face in getting their funds restored. I hope I can get every cent back but if for some reason I cannot I'll count this as a $92 lesson in "don't leave funds on a prepaid debit card" Not sure if I'll cancel completely since maybe one day it could be useful. But it will NEVER again hold more funds than I plan to use in a few days.

I push funds to the card from my checking account. I do keep a running balance on my personal finance software and when the balance gets to high ($100), I skip the upcoming deposit for that period. I do get paid Monthly, but to keep risk down I do the transfer every two weeks.

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 01:01:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
May I ask, what do you need the Bluebird card for? You have credit cards, correct? I have a Bluebird card, but never keep any funds on it. I just use it to unload Gift cards that I may get from time to time.

I don't need it anymore. I got it several years ago when I had no credit cards and didn't want to use my primary checking account's debit card online for shopping. Once I got credit cards (just since November 2017) I didn't cancel it.

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

jjmac10 — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 09:12:38 GMT

I want to add that there is another option on Bluebird and Serve accounts that may be useful to some cardholders. They both offer "Set-Aside" sub accounts that segregate funds into and away from the main account. The funds in the set aside account are not counted as an available balance to the card until you transfer them into the main account. The transfers are immediate so there is an advantage to using this feature because you would not have to wait for an external transfer to clear. Keeping a higher balance in the set aside account and moving funds into the main account when needed is a reasonable way to reduce the risk of a drained account in a fraud situation.

BlueBird Set Aside FAQ Link

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 14:47:51 GMT

Well it has been almost a week and I have to say I am impressed with how BlueBird handled this. I read HORROR stories galore online about this sort of thing happening and folks never getting their money back (of course it is possible they DID get their money back but weren't motivated to go online and update their posts).

But in 6 days of the $92 that was stolen, $79 has been restored, and $13 remains "on hold." I've been able to transfer $325 out of BlueBird and into my regular banking account. The only frustration was the need to call them each day to report each individual transaction as it went from pending to posted (but I THINK you have to do that with a regular bank/credit card too...wait for it to post, and not be in pending status). The phone reps I spoke with didn't have the best English, but they were all (all but one) courteous and helpful.

And thus if someone found him/herself without a credit card and no desire to risk their own bank debit card with online shopping, ubers, subscriptions, etc, I suppose I would recommend a BlueBird debit card with one caveat, always keep MOST if not all of the balance in the "set aside" portion of the account. Then ONLY transfer it over to the main account when you're ready to use it, as jjmac10 suggested.

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

UncleB — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 15:35:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Well it has been almost a week and I have to say I am impressed with how BlueBird handled this. I read HORROR stories galore online about this sort of thing happening and folks never getting their money back (of course it is possible they DID get their money back but weren't motivated to go online and update their posts).

But in 6 days of the $92 that was stolen, $79 has been restored, and $13 remains "on hold." I've been able to transfer $325 out of BlueBird and into my regular banking account. The only frustration was the need to call them each day to report each individual transaction as it went from pending to posted (but I THINK you have to do that with a regular bank/credit card too...wait for it to post, and not be in pending status). The phone reps I spoke with didn't have the best English, but they were all (all but one) courteous and helpful.

And thus if someone found him/herself without a credit card and no desire to risk their own bank debit card with online shopping, ubers, subscriptions, etc, I suppose I would recommend a BlueBird debit card with one caveat, always keep MOST if not all of the balance in the "set aside" portion of the account. Then ONLY transfer it over to the main account when you're ready to use it, as jjmac10 suggested.

I'm glad to hear they were able to take care of things for you!

I have a Serve account that I send $10 each month to waive the monthly fee (it's an OBS/Old Blue Serve). I used to use it to keep my credit card cash back (like a savings account) but I realized that should it be compromised it might be a hassle to work things out, and I transferred my "savings" to an otherwise unused WF checking account.

I picked up my Serve back when my only other major cards were an Orchard Bank MC and a HSBC Discover, and I have to say that they've always been nice to deal with, if sometimes uninformed.

I hang on to it since it's easy to do transfers with others who have a BlueBird/Serve, but anytime the balance gets to around $100 I empty it out and start over.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Re: Amex Debit Card (Blue Bird) compromised

OmarR — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 02:21:56 GMT

@jjmac10 wrote:
Keeping a higher balance in the set aside account and moving funds into the main account when needed is a reasonable way to reduce the risk of a drained account in a fraud situation.

This is the same concept that I use with USAA, my main bank. I carry a debit card with only $100 balance. I can swipe (on the app) more immediately if needed from my higher balance account. If someone is still using debit as their main card (bad credit) or chooses to carry a debit card, this is the way they should be doing it to limit exposure.