Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA)

Consumers in today’s world cannot avoid the electronic transfer of money.  Whether buying gas, groceries, or paying your mortgage, the electronic transfer of funds is a normal means for consumers to pay for their lives.

These modern-day payment conveniences create certain dangers and risks.  To help consumers protect against those risks, the EFTA requires that banks and other financial entities must be sure that transactions of money from your accounts are authorized by you.

However, as the forms and mechanisms for electronically transferring money have grown and evolved, so have the types of unauthorized transactions and the bad actors trying to take your money.  Zelle, PayPay, Venmo, and CashApp swindles are becoming more prevalent.  Your cell phone company, gym membership, or other consumer service company may continue electronic charges after you end your relationship with them, or they may charge you duplicate charges for the same service..  You may have your identity stolen without your knowledge, or you may be forced in a violent crime to withdraw funds from an ATM.  Someone may use your lost or stolen debit card to make purchases at Wal-Mart or online.  Or your or someone you love may have been swindled out of money by someone pretending to be a trusted partner dealing with secure information, like an bank, credit monitoring service, or a trusted service provider.

If someone has transferred money from your savings, checking, retirement, or other accounts without your permission, if you have incurred junk or undisclosed fees at an ATM, if someone has defrauded you by masquerading as a bank employee, or if someone has acquired your banking information by sending urgent texts to you to avoid purported outragous charges, those all could constitute violations of the EFTA.