Mobile Banking To The Rescue
Posted by George Pasley on October 29, 2009
So, I was headed home from work this evening and decided to stop at a local restaurant for some takeout. After placing my order, I then paid with my handy-dandy First Federal debit card. After receiving my food, I headed on home to enjoy my meal.
When I settled in to eat my dinner, I checked my phone to see what alerts came in from mobile banking. I saw two debit alerts, one that matched a purchase I made earlier, and one that didn’t look familiar. It seems that what I thought I paid for my meal was not matching the alert I received.
I then logged onto online banking and saw the debit description for the restaurant. It seems that the cashier added a dollar tip that I didn’t remember giving.
I guess he didn’t know that: #1 I get SMS alerts on my debit card and #2 I work for the bank. Tomorrow morning, they will most likely lose out on the transaction altogether.
So what have we learned? SMS alerts can help protect you against fraudulent charges; and small business owners may want to be a little more honest with all this technology in consumers’ hands.
Update
The restaurant adjusted their credit charges at the end of night. So I ended up being charged the correct amount.
