Safety First When Making a Person to Person Payment
August 26, 2019
Maybe you found the perfect dining room table on Craigslist, or your landlord would prefer rent payments be sent to her checking account electronically; there are many reasons why you might need to make a transfer to another person. With the help of hot new apps, sending money is simple—but, if you’re not careful, those “peer-to-peer” (P2P) payment tools could end up costing you.
Imagine a situation where you make an arrangement to sell your car to someone who would like to transfer the money electronically. The person “accidentally” sends $1,000 more than the estimated price and requests that you send them a money order back for the overpayment. You later receive a notice that the other person reversed the transaction and you now owe the $1,000 overpayment.
Online purchase scams are now the riskiest type of consumer fraud, based on a review of complaints to the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker. So how can you stay safe while still benefiting from the convenience of payment apps?
Keep an Eye on Your Money
If you are a frequent user of apps like Venmo, PayPal or eBay, make it a habit to review your account activity and reconcile your known payments to withdrawals weekly. See something funny? Our staff is trained to identify and help you report suspicious activity, so contact us immediately.
Use Credit Cards to Fund Really Big Transfers
You will always get the most legal protection against fraud when using a credit card rather than a payment directly from your bank account—including the right to reverse a payment if there’s a problem with a transaction. While you can also dispute errors made with a debit card, only credit cards provide the legal right to reverse a payment when an agreement is not met.
Read the Terms & Conditions
There are many considerations when it comes to the risks associated with P2P transactions, which is why it’s critical to read all disclosures regarding the P2P product. Each website or app will list its Terms & Conditions or User Agreements. Some sites will even offer refunds to buyers directly when purchases go wrong.
Texas Gulf Bank’s Online and Mobile Banking “Pay a Person” feature makes it easy for you to send money to anyone in the U.S. from your computer or smartphone securely!
From Pay A Person, you can electronically pay a person directly through email, text message or using the recipient’s account and routing number either on a computer or through the TGB Mobile App.
Give Pay A Person a try with these simple steps!
Log in to YOUR ACCOUNT
Select “Bill Pay”
Select “Pay a Person”
Choose to send money by email or text message