Zero Liability Online Banking

[RonBoyd]

Don’t Take This Bait (but You’re Safe if You Do)

I could not find any online financial service — and I checked brokerage firms as well as banks — that stops short of promising to make a victimized customer whole.

... my bank has this policy posted on its Web site: “We guarantee that you will be covered for 100 percent of funds removed from your Wells Fargo accounts in the unlikely event that someone you haven’t authorized removes those funds through our Online Services.”

“Zero liability is now an industry standard,” said Doug Johnson, vice president for risk management at the American Bankers Association. Restitution is full, and customers do not even have the $50 of exposure that credit card holders risk from unauthorized use of their cards.

 

[Mysto]

I don't think I trust this author. Etrade Bank has had zero liability and a password pendant for some time.

 

[MichaelB]

The author is not well informed. On two occasions I helped extended family members deal with banks over unauthorized online bank withdrawals, both 5 figure amounts. In one case the bank acted badly, in the other the bank acted shamefully. Restitution was only achieved after involving federal regulators and congressional representatives, and took 10 and 18 months.