Eastwest Bank: Double Transaction

 

Most recently, Mimi had a not-so-good relationship with Eastwest bank. Some of you who may have had read or followed our blog site would know how excited she was few months back in opening a Basic Savings Account with them. Right now, it is more of a feeling of regret.

Her main intention of opening the account was since she does not own a credit card it would be more hassle-free to own a debit card which she can use for most of her POS transactions, all other transactions for that matter. The EW Bank Basic Savings Account comes with a VISA card that can be ran as a “debit”/ATM card, which means, no need for her pin number on each transaction. Most times when she uses her RCBC ATM Card at a gas station, she has to get down from the car and walk at the cashier’s booth to enter her ATM pin that can be a hassle. Mimi thought that EW Bank VISA Debit card would be a good alternative for these type of transactions until late last week.

Mimi went to gas up at Petron, Wack Wack and used her card for the first time there. She said that last time she checked she had Php 2,000 balance in the account. She decided to gas up for Php 1,000 gave her EW Visa Debit card along with her Petron Card to the gas boy. Gas boy returned with the slip that she has to sign, the Petron Card, EW Card and the official receipt, after that she took off.

EW Bank online transaction history

I guess her mistake was she did not checked her online transaction after using the card. A week after, I asked Mimi to buy me something and she told me that she doesn’t have enough money left on her wallet so I told her why not get some cash from her EW Debit Card. She said that she only had Php 100 left. I was thinking that she might have used the money to buy something and all that, no big deal. Until she came home, swearing that there was an unauthorized transaction on the card. It appeared that her card had a double charge for the same amount, with a minute interval from the first one.

Problem with the online transaction of EW Bank, it does not provide the merchant’s information on each POS transaction it will only show ‘POS Debit’ and the corresponding amount, date and time. She now recalled that the only transaction she made was of the gas charge at Petron Wack Wack. Luckily, I managed to get hold of the receipt, which corresponds, to the debit charge made 12:47 am of January 5. Now the other charge, we just do not know where it came from. We immediately went back to Petron. Spoke with their supervisor, Sir Ian who was very accommodating. He even informed us on how they would reverse the charge in case it is an error due to their end. He was also very apologetic and empathetic.

Today we received a call from Petron’s Area Manager confirming that they only received the 12:47 am transaction, which means that the other Php 1,000 is somewhere else. He also said that they have contacted EW Bank about it and the only response they have received is that it is in process and we all need to wait for 41 banking days.

41 banking days is not a good assurance, especially if it is your hard-earned money. I mean come on, if Petron can figure it out, why can’t the bank. If the merchant is willing to send out all those documents to attest the charge then why can’t the bank honor or use it as proof?

I don’t know but Mimi and I share the same sentiment. 41 banking days is freaking hilarious. More so, even how small it may seem it is our hard-earned money and needs handling with utmost urgency.

So better, think twice before opening an EW Bank VISA Debit Card, we may all have different experiences with it or with them but to me they need to have a sense of urgency in handling cases like this especially if we are talking about real cash.

***UPDATE: In case anyone of you wondering what happened next, just today, January 19, 2016 I was able to see a POS Credit of Php 1,000 and this is after the vicious email I sent out to EW Bank. Issue is now closed and resolved.