Debit Dilemma No Day At The Spa

Debit cards are as convenient as credit cards. That is why a lot of people use them.

"I use my check card a lot. I did before. I never had a problem like this before," said Maris Evans of Garner.

Evans' debit card problem happened after she used it last month to buy a $100 gift certificate from Skin Sense, a Cary day spa.

While balancing her account the following week, Evans said that she noticed the spa had debited an extra $325 from her account.

"I wanted to make sure I had enough money to cover all my drafts to pay my bills and that's when I realized it happened.I have bills to pay. I have checks to clear," she said.

Evans immediately called Skin Sense. A manager there told Evans to bring in proof. When Evans got there, they gave her a receipt showing they went ahead and credited her $325. But five days later, the credit still had not showed up in her account.

"My money should have been there," she said."We had snow Thursday [and] the banks were closed. I gave them Friday, no money. Saturday, no money."

On Monday, Evans called Skin Sense again. A manager told her another mistake was made and promised the credit would be made to her account that day. Evans was not convinced and called Five On Your Side.

"I'm angry. I'm very, very frustrated," Evans said.

Five On Your Side called Skin Sense.

"There were a couple of different mistakes made along the way," said Angela Padgett, president of Skin Sense.

Padgett said that she is not exactly sure how the $325 charge happened. She said that the credit did not go through because an employee put in the wrong account number and that was not until they reopened after the snow.

"I certainly can understand why she was upset. Unfortunately, it was a mistake. It wasn't intended to happen," Padgett said.

Evans' $325 finally made it back into her account 2 1/2 weeks after it was mistakenly taken out. She has the following advice for all of us.

"Balance your checkbook every week. If I had not realized on Jan. 2 that I was short, I would have bounced seven checks," she said.

Mistakes happen. If you do not check your accounts frequently

and

carefully, you could miss an error. The longer it continues, the harder it can be to resolve.