how zero liability policies work
in general zero liability policies reimburse you for charges when others use your credit card for without your permission zero liability policies may apply to personal and business accounts debit cards and credit cards the bank will investigate any claim you make of unauthorized use and it s possible your claim may not be valid for example if the bank finds that an authorized user used your account without your approval the zero liability claim may not be valid while the bank investigates the fraud it will likely offer a temporary credit within a few days after you make the claim if the claim meets the requirements the temporary credit is made permanent however the temporary credit is removed from your account if the claim isn t valid zero liability policy requirementszero liability policies frequently have exceptions the cardholder agreement should specify these exceptions so read it carefully you might not be covered by your zero liability policy if you credit cards offer better fraud protection than debit cards according to federal law credit card issuers are responsible for covering the costs associated with fraudulent credit card charges if you notice and report a charge that doesn t belong on your credit card you aren t liable for any charges but if you fail to report the fraud on time you may need to pay a maximum of 50 toward the charges 1debit cards are subject to a different set of federal rules with debit cards your responsibility is determined by how soon you reported the fraud and whether the physical card or card number was involved here s are come key federal protection rules 1if your physical card wasn t used to commit the debit card fraud just the card number you have up to 60 days from your statement mailing date to report the incident before you are liable 2however debit card issuers may voluntarily offer zero liability policies that are more consumer friendly than federal protections policies vary from issuer to issuer and card network to card network zero liability policy examplesbank of america offers a 0 liability guarantee for account holders which covers fraudulent transactions made by others using your bank of america debit and credit cards for this coverage you must report transactions made by other people promptly however you are not allowed to share personal or account information with anyone 3chase bank also offers zero liability protection this policy fully reimburses unauthorized debit card transactions if account holders report fraud promptly chase defines promptly as within 60 days for personal accounts and 30 days for business accounts 4if your capital one debit mastercard is lost or stolen you have no liability for unauthorized charges like other banks capital one expects you to report fraud as soon as possible after spotting an unauthorized transaction 5mastercard says that cardholders will not be held responsible for unauthorized transactions if 1 you have used reasonable care in protecting your card from loss or theft and 2 you promptly reported loss or theft to your financial institution however this zero liability doesn t apply to mastercard payment cards including unregistered gift cards 6visa s zero liability policy replaces funds stemming from an unauthorized credit or debit transaction within five business days after you notify them once again this policy doesn t apply to anonymous prepaid cards 7