Current Bank Ripped Off My Daughter's Savings

My daughter is 18 and has started college. She is a wonderful girl and always tries to do the right thing. So when she came to me in January I was not expecting what happened next. She held her phone up so I could see the balance in her Current Bank Teen Savings Account. She was supposed to have $650 in her account but the balance shows $250. As we both looked at the screen the total changed to $0. At the bottom of the screen, we saw that someone in Miami FL had apparently used her account to make two purchases in a Walgreens store and wipe out her account in a matter of seconds.

We live in Mobile, AL so there is no way that she could have purchased anything in Miami FL. We were both in shock that someone had managed to hack into her account, steal her identity and create a Current Bank Debit Card to purchase items in a Walgreens. But a Walgreens? How can you spend $650 in a Walgreens? Well, it seems that scammers purchase cash cards that they can use anywhere.

I immediately killed the link to my debit card that I used to fund the account. Then I called the support number to report the card as stolen. I got the usual recorded message to press a number to report a lost or stolen card and expected to be on hold for an agent. But that was not the case with Current Bank. I got another recording telling me to leave a message and someone would get back to me in less than 24 hours. This phone call was repeated many times over the next few months and I never spoke to a human about my daughter’s money. They never called me back.

I should point out that we use my mobile phone as a house phone and I have spam filters set to stop calls. But most companies who are legit leave a message and I return the call. But no message from Current ever appeared. So I set a filter to let that number come through and still no response.

But I did not stop at calling a number on the card. I immediately set up a chat session and made contact with a Current rep who assured me that my issue would be addressed promptly and I should take screenshots of the Walgreen’s purchases and send them to her. She would forward my documentation to the Fraud Team and they would follow up.

This was January of this year and 90 days later we received a curt email telling us that my dispute had been rejected. No explanation, no nothing, just a denial.

This was after I had spent many of those 90 days sending more emails with more screenshots as they would ask for more with more details. I sent everything to them promptly and they were very slow in responding. I set up more chat sessions and got nowhere as they would continue to say the dispute was being processed and it could take up to 90 days to resolve.

I love my daughter and have become so angry at how she has been treated by this company. We have been with Current for several years and it had worked well for us. That is until there was a problem.

My daughter is a saver. She worked as a lifeguard at the local YMCA. She did chores for me to earn a few dollars. She saved Christmas and birthday money from us and the grandparents. She put her hard-earned money into an account that I assured her was safe. The card is backed by VISA and I told her not to worry as the bank would see that there was no way she was at fault and they would return the money to her account. She was disappointed that it was going to take a long time and I couldn’t explain why it could take up to 90 days. I asked the Current rep in chat sessions why it was taking so long because it was a scam. They said it would probably be faster but that was not what happened.

As the weeks went by I took steps to find another solution so that my daughter could start using another Teen Card. I settled on PayPal and assured her that it was safer than Current. But the stress of losing her money would not go away and she would come to me in tears because she was worried that a scammer could get into her PayPal account or even our bank account and steal all our money. No amount of reassurance was working and then the day came (almost exactly 90 Days) when she received the email rejecting her claim.

More tears.

If anyone can tell me how they could reject a claim where the crime took place in Miami FL and my daughter is in Mobile, AL, then please let me know. This is absurd and I am trying to get them to explain why this happened.

Maybe this is the world we live in now, where there is so much we do with technology that the scammers must feel like they are at a buffet. “Oh, who shall we pick today, seniors or teens? I just can’t seem to choose. I want to do that ransomware thing to hospitals but I am making so much money with seniors and teens maybe I’ll just wait.”

Years ago we used a teen card called VISA Buxx. Some of you may remember this card. It was great! If there was a problem you called the 800 number, a human answered and solved the problem.

Now everything is automated and you can leave messages until your voice runs out and they will never return your call. Even worse, our spam filters on our phones may not even let the call go through. We now use my mobile phone as our house phone and I get so many spams calls that legitimate numbers cannot get through.

I am now trying to find out why my daughter’s claim was denied but so far it has been a very frustrating exercise. But I am not going to give up because that is what the card people want us to do…just give up and move on. I wonder how many people just give up because the amount of money is not enough to keep fighting.

I have given my daughter the lost money so that she can move on and hopefully her PayPal account and card will work. But just this week I found out that many teens using Venmo (a PayPal company) are losing money to scammers. My eldest daughter uses Venmo so now I am worried that her money will disappear.

I truly believe that technology is not going to save us. Maybe things will change but for now, it is a scary world out there filled with scammers working every day to steal our money. My advice is to do your research, find a company that will be there for you when there are issues, and make sure you talk to your sons and daughters about card safety. I thought I was a tech-savvy parent but they got by me anyway and tagged my daughter for all her savings. Not a fun time in our family.