NetSpend Ace Elite Card MetaBank NetSpend/MetaBank makes their "real" money off of allowing companies to Double Charge. Indianapolis Indiana

So, here we have an employee of Netspend, saying that the stop payment on checks are not an option. So riddle me this, why did you tell both me, AND my husband that you would stop payment on the transactions?  I am the wife of the original poster,  and I can attest to exactly what he's saying. Not only have they lied so many times to us, but they have taken our money, and they have taken money from friends and family! 

My mother for example, got royally screwed over by Net Spend. So much so that she was just told today by the Attorney General to look into filing a class action lawsuit against them. How about them apples, Netspend! You thieves!  

So, here's what happened to my mom, and the reason why I'm reporting this is because *I* should be suing them for false accusations and deformation of character!

My mom is a single, older woman, with many health issues and she cannot handle a former bank. I pretty much take care of everything for her, so I have been right there, in the middle of this deplorable act of theft and deceit that caused my mom to become homeless and putting her health and her LIFE in harms way and caused so much stress for my mom, she had to go to the hospital.  They caused her to make the choice of keeping her home, or keeping her medication that is essential for her to LIVE!

When I helped my mom open an Ace Elite card account over a year ago. I have had minimal issues with them at that point and thought that it was perfect for her because she would be able to manage it almost on her own and she would feel a sense of independence. How I was so wrong. 

Netspend seems to prey on their customers. Especially the ones that receive any sort of government benefits. My mom receives a government benefit plus she works to fill the financial gap that's left from her benefits. She has to work as every penny she makes is already spent each week and she literally lives paycheck to paycheck. 

She had both her benefits and her work checks direct deposited to her account. She had only been doing this for 9 months before Netspend created her hell that she currently libes in. 

The last check she got deposited to her Netspend card, was when it happened. Her check was deposited and available at 9:17am. By 9:20, $879 total from 2 different transactions were deducted from her account.  But they were taken out by the checking account. NOT her debit card. So, the first red flag was, whatever company this was that took her money, how in the HELL did they just so happen to push TWO checks through within 10 minutes of her check becoming available?  Typically when checks are deducted it takes 3-5 days. It was very odd WHEN the money was taken out. 

When she went online to view her account, she realized whay had happened and in a frantic, she called Netspend and filed fraudulent charges on her account.  The company was named IPL Community- something. It was definitely not charges that she had approved.  The rep she talked to assured her that her money would be returned in no more than 10 days. That she did the right thing ny catching it right away, and that the funds had not actually been deposited into the other account yet. They reassured her, and reassured her, and did it some more, so that she felt absolute confident that she felt without a doubt, her money was going to be returned. 

Fast forward to 14 days later. During that time, many calls to Netspend and them saying the investigation was still under way,  but they were positive the investigation would turn out in her favor. Day 14 came around and she tried logging into her account to see if the money had been deposited yet and she got an error message that there was a problem woth her account and to call Netspend customer support.  When she called,  they informed her that the investigation had concluded and that the money would NOT be retuned. She went into a frantic, helpless, massive anxiety attack that night. So much so that she had to be hospitalized. I am an authorized person on her account,  so when I called them up to ask what their so-called "investigation" had concluded, they simply said that the IPL company that had taken her money said they weren't going to return her money. They informed me that it was at the sole discretion of the company to give her the money back. Well, it's a no brainer that they didn't want to give money back they stole. 

There were many, many calls back and forth over the next 30 days. On one of those calls, my mom had called. One of the supervisors that had been in contact with us before, had the pathetic audacity to STRAIGHT LIE, to try and get this issue to go away and said that upon their "investigations" (which we know what that means, they either asked someone of NO authority,  or just flat out make it up), they discovered that this IPL company that had taken this money was actually owned by her daughter, ME! That's right, they tried to convince my mother that I owned this company some how, and that I took the money! I wish I was kidding! You can't make this stuff up! 

Within this time, NetSpend (not at the request of my mom, either) had deactivated and closed her account.  Keep this in mind, as this is a testament to just how shady Netspend is. 

At that point, my mom realized they were doing everything they could to not have to give her money back, even to go as far as try and say it was her own daughter that had stolen the money from her. She decided to get the Attorney General involved. After filing a consumer report, she had a representative assigned to her case. After just a few weeks of involving the Attorney General, the concluded that NetSpend was in the wrong and were ordered to return to her the full amount of both transactions. My mom had finally gotten her victory and she thought that was going to be the end of it.  

But it wasn't.  It has been 3 months since NetSpend was ordered to return her money, and she has still not received it. 

NetSpend had told the Attorney General rep that they would send my mom the full amount of the 2 transactions to the address she had on file, which was my house, in the form of a check. That it would be sent and delivered within 14 business days. 20 business days go by, and still no check. My mom calls them back, and NetSpend starts their thieving and lying all over again...

They had "refunded" the amount of the charges back on to her DEACTIVATED,  CLOSED, account!  They told my mom that they were sending her out a new card. Ok, she thought she'd get the card in no more than 10 days, like they said. Well, 2 weeks go by. No card. She calls up, they order her another card,  verify her address,  and that's that. 2 MORE weeks go by, she calls up, and they say she can't get another free one, but if she wanted to PAY $4.95, they'll send her another replacement card. So she hopes that since she actually paid for it, which means there was a physical order placed for a new card, she'd get it. 3 weeks go by, no card. She calls and now they are telling her that her account is not activated (no kidding) and that in order for her to activate her account and have her funds become available,  she would need to send in her ID, SocSec card, and a proof of residence. Mind you, this is 9 weeks after they deposited the money back on to her deactivated account and after at least 10 phone calls to verify the cards were coming or to order replacement cards, and none of this was ever said/required until now.

This is when I started to get upset, and that same phone call, I got on the phone with them myself. I asked the customer service rep to get me in touch with a supervisor.  At first she says that there are none available.  Seriously?  I insist that she gets the person that is closest to God in that call center NOW. She asks me to hold, comes back, and tells me that the supervisor will have to call me back. I don't accept. I insist on speaking to a supervisor within this same call. She yells, "Fine! One moment!" After about 10 minutes,  I finally talk to someone who claimed to be a supervisor.  I tried to stay calm and polite with the supervisor,  but when she kept insisting that NetSpend hadn't done anything wrong and that my mom was at fault and shouldn't have given her info out if she didn't want to pay ffor the stuff. I was fed up. That's when I asked, "Ma'am, if you weren't trying to avoid and flat out REFUSING to have to give my mom back her money, answer me this ONE question; why in the world would your company tell the Attorney General that she would receive the refunded charges in a form of a check, but instead, your company deposits it on her DEACTIVATED and CLOSED account? How in the hell do you deposit ANY money onto a deactivated and closed account, period!?!? Not only that, but doing so, you are well aware that my mom has NO way of getting a hold of her money because YOU guys closed her account!" Surprisingly,  her only answer was, "Ma'am, she will need to send in her Photo ID, SocSec card, and proof of resistance." Of course she had no answer to that! I then remind her that my mom has every right to request that the account is fully closed, and a check for the amount in the account be sent to her. The lady tries tk claim she can't do it, and when I threaten to once again getting the Attorney General to make them do their job, she put me on hold for 5 minutes,  came back, and said she had filed the request for a check to bbesent out for the balance of the account.  This request was made and supposedly granted, filed, and made to happen on July 16th. She said the check would arrive within 20 business days. 

Today is July 25th. 9 days ago they were supposed to close the account and remove the funds from her DEACTIVATED account and put it in a check. My mom called today just to make sure that this was still happening.  I guess she had a feeling, because they told her that there was no request made for a check. Not only that, but she asked if there were any transactions that they've allowed to go through on her closed and deactivated account,  and guess what.... 

NetSpend had charged her 4 days ago 9.99 for the account monthly fee. 

So, they're keeping my mom's money on a closed, deactivated account that she has zero access to, they're still charging her monthly fees, and they REFUSE to send her the check that they have now said 3 times they'd send her. 

I guess that it's ok because it looks like they gave her money back, but as long as they refuse to give her access to it, then in reality,  they still are stealing her money. 

I hope you made it through all of that. I didn't want to leave 1 deplorable act this company has done to my mother AND to me! 

Do NOT EVER do business with NetSpend! They are the biggest liars and thieves in the industry.  Its not a surprise that more and more people are moving away from NetSpend, to other PrePaid bank cards. Since all this has happened, I've since moved to BlueBird with Amex. My mom moved there, and my husband. Anyone I know, and anyone I meet that uses Netspend, I tell them what happened,  and BEG them to not to use them unless they want their money stolen! 

I have now SAVED atleast 10 people from becoming NetSpends next victims. 

I personally have had Netspend withhold money from me for no reason. One time my card was stolen and who stole it used it at a gas station.  I had a police report, video of the guy using my card and charging $60 before I new my card had been stolen. Even with all that,  their "investigation" concluded that they found no substantial evidence that any non-authorized activity had happened. They just didn't want to give me back my $60. 

STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM NETSPEND AS YOU CAN!

I was told by the customer service agent that there was not an authorization for the payment yet so they could put a hold on it.  The second time this happened that's what I was told by the agent.  Remember my report.  I called within a few minutes of making the duplicate payment.   The first time this happened was over an hour the second time just a few mins had past before I noticed my mistake and called the customer service line.  But in both cases the Agent informed me that the stop payment was in place.  

     Now if there is a delay when the customer service agent sends an email to someone or does something in the system between the time the actually stop payment occurs in the system. Then this time difference is what could allow the merchant to get the authorization even though I was told that the stop payment is in place.  

At best Customer Service should be trained to tell customers that there is a posibility the merchant will receive authoriztion to deduct the money before we can issue a stop payment for real.  Customers shouldn't be told one thing and the Company allows something differnt to happen either via a faulty process or system or by profit motive.  That's not right and in my opinion what is wrong with the world today.  Greed.

We understand your concern regarding the stop payments you have requested.

Unfortunately, once a transaction is authorized, we are unable to stop it.  The authorization gives the merchant the right to collect the funds and this can not be reversed.  For this reason, we can dispute the transaction to try and retrieve the money back this way.

We do offer stop payments on ACH debits (payments using your routing and account number), but a form must be completed before the payment is made.

We would appreciate the opportunity to assist you with this and request that you send your information to feedback@netspend.com.

Thank you,

NetSpend