The First Call

My husband was having problems with his pay at work - it was going to be late. I scoured our bank statements, wondering how we could cut back and manage, when I noticed a debit card payment that looked strange.

"D'you know what this is?" I asked. My husband shook his head and said, "no". Then I remembered. I'd made a one off payment to the company last year, they'd obviously kept my card details (without my knowledge or permission) and had decided to continue debiting money each month. I was livid. The company in question (you don't need to know the details) was difficult to deal with, so I phoned the bank. This was Monday 30th April.

The girl I spoke to was friendly and pleasant, and said they could cancel my card immediately, as it seemed these debits were happening at the beginning of the month. She said she would issue a new card "straight away" and I would get it "in a few days". I asked about getting the money back that had been taken fraudulently.

She told me that I could ring the Card Fraud number, but they were very busy, and it would probably be quicker if I went into the branch and filled out a fraud form for them to fax through. She said it was busy enough that people were being "taken off the phones to deal with the faxes from branches". She told me that once the Fraud Department had received this, I should have my money "within 48 hours".

Oh how wrong can you get...