Consumer complaint received 2015-04-11
Product: Bank account or service — Other bank product/service
Issue: Using a debit or ATM card — 
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (RI)

On XXXX XXXX, 2014 I noticed a fraudulent charge of {$490.00}, on my Santander bank statement, was made using my debit card. I immediately called Santander in regards to the charge. I was told that the charge had not yet processed so nothing could be done because the charge could potentially fall off rather than be processed. However, I had a new debit card issued in the meantime. On XXXX XXXX, 2014 the fraudulent charge was in fact processed. The charge was made to an unknown person in XXXX. I was in XXXX for my wedding and honeymoon from XXXX XXXX, 2014 to XXXX XXXX, 2014. Prior to my trip to XXXX I had notified Santander of my travel dates and since then I have confirmed with Santander that this is in fact on file. Additonally, I made a debit card purchase in XXXX on XXXX XXXX, 2014, which is evident within my back statement as well as the on the physical receipt I have for that purchase. Upon my return from XXXX, I called Santander to open a fraud claim. Within a week I was issued a charge back for the {$490.00} and a few weeks following that the charge back was debited from my account. I also received a letter stating that my claim had been denied. I then called Santander to request the documentation used in the claim investigation. It was at this time that I was also asked if I wanted to reopen the claim. I agreed to reopen the claim as I assumed that some piece of information was just overlooked. I was told that the claim results and the documentation would take approximately ten business days, however due to the holiday season and the countless days of in-climate weather that affected postal service, I waited nearly a month before contacting Santander once again. As it turns out, there was no record of my request for the documents or the reopening of my claim. So I placed the same requests for a second time. In approximately two weeks I received the documentation and another letter notifying me of the denied claim. Upon reviewing the documentation I came across contact information for the merchant who received my {$490.00}. The customer service number provided was disconnected, the email address was non-existent, and the merchant could not be located through any internet searching means. Also in the documentation was information showing the debit card authorization through a XXXX terminal that is listed as a " person to person '' transaction. I proceeded to call XXXX for more information regarding this. XXXX explained that the transaction was in fact " person to person '' meaning that the authorizing party would have to present the debit card to the merchant. The XXXX terminal used is not an online account, it is physical credit card terminal. Due to privacy policies, XXXX could not give me any further information regarding the merchant. I then relayed this information to Santander explaining that based on the " person to person '' transaction, I could not have physically been in XXXX when I was very clearly in XXXX on XXXX XXXX. I also explained that I had n't been able to contact the merchant himself as all of the information provided appears to be fake. Santander told me that nothing more could be done because they do not reopen a claim after it has been investigated XXXX. I then requested that the claim investigator contact me regarding this information. I have made this same request XXXX times now and have yet to receive any response. In the past month I have contacted a detective from my local police department to help me find more information. His calls to XXXX and Santander have left him with the same information that I have and no evidence that the merchant is truly a merchant. He has advised me to continue pressing Santander to reopen my claim. I have attempted to do so, however I am continually given the same answer that the will not reopen it for a XXXX time.