My credit card has been stolen: can I get my money back?

It is increasingly common, unfortunately, to be the victim of a theft of our money through the credit card. The Union of Consumers of Extremadura (UCEx) gives us the guidelines to follow and clarifies the question of whether we can recover the money that has been stolen from us.

If we are victims of a theft or lose the card and it ends up in the hands of a third party, we will only be responsible for the first 50 euros that are spent without our consent until we report the theft or the loss of the “plastic”, clarifies UCEx. The bank must return the rest of the money to us. In addition, the entity must respond for any operation that is carried out after having been notified of the theft.

But for this to happen, the limit of 50 euros has certain conditions and “is subject to the customer having protected his card with sufficient care and not having incurred in any type of negligence, such as sharing the data of the medium of payment with another person or carry the pin code noted next to the card”, according to UCEx. If the above requirements are not met, the bank may refuse to return the money. In addition, also “could oppose the charge back, if the operation has passed all security measures (pin, authentication with a temporary code received by SMS, etc.),” ​​reports the Consumers Union.

card cloning

Another way to get your card money stolen is cloning by cybercriminals. Two alleged card cloners in Extremadura who took money from 46 people in Plasencia have recently been tried in Cáceres.

In these cases, in which our card does not stop being with us at any time, but a cybercriminal clones it, that is, manages to decipher the numbering, the expiration date and the CVV, the bank will return all the money spent . This is because as there is no material loss of the card, we may not realize that our data has been stolen until we discover that it has been used without our permission.

But what should we do if we are victims of card fraud? If a card is lost or stolen or at the time we become aware that it has been used fraudulently, “we must cancel it,” says UCEx.

To cancel the card, we can do so by calling the bank by phone, through online banking or the entity’s application. The Bank of Spain states that it is the entity’s obligation “to have at all times a form of communication for cases of loss, theft or unauthorized use.” For this reason, banks usually have a telephone available 24 hours a day to deal with this type of incident.

The next step will be to file a complaint with the Police. Finally, “we will have to claim the bank for the return of all unauthorized payments that have been made with the card,” says the Consumers Union.