For those that have sent settlement letters to PDL companies

I will ask for a cashier's check if they offer me a refund. NO WAY are they getting my new account information or my paypal account information. If they got your paypal account info I would bet they would try to withdraw from it.

Let's hope we all get BIG refunds.

rio sent me a check in the mail. i cashed it at a grocery store for safety sake.

Cashier's check will be the best way for getting such refunds. Do not give out your personal bank info while getting the refunds.

Could Rio get our new account number with me cashing the money order at the bank?

not sure tammy.

pollyandsay,
That's exactly what I was thinking. I did get a refund from United, but that was before my old acct was closed. And there is no way I would deposit a check in my new bank acct, since the bank would endorse the back.

The Paypal part was kind of a joke, but they wouldn't be able to take money via Paypal since the acct holder has to authorize a payment.

I wanted to see if I was the only paranoid person around here lol. :)

I never thought about cashing the cashiers check at the bank until you posted that you cashed your at the grocery store. I hope I didn't just make a huge mistake.

i hope you didn't too Tammy. I am just a very paranoid person though... I cashed mine at a store in the hood about 10 miles from my house...they charged me 2 bucks to cash it, and it was well worth it.

Tammy,

If they were somehow able to get a copy of the money order, maybe. Usually a financial institution has an endorsement that is printed on the back of checks that are deposited or cashed.
When I was a teller, the endorsement included the name of the credit union, the transaction number, the acct number and the routing number of the financial instution. Of course, this was before the days of Check 21, so things may have changed a little in the last 3 years. But at the least the name of the bank it is cashed at would be able to be found. Have to submit the bank name (even via routing number) when requesting the funds be cleared from the bank of the check writer, so the reserve system knows which financial institution a credit needs to go to. Does that make sense?

I don't think so. Because Rio will be putting your name and address in the check. Your account number will not be put in the check.

Should I notify our bank and alert them to this?

Tammy I don't think it would hurt to do what you can to keep your new acct info safe. I would talk to a bank rep in person, explain the situation, so they know what kind of companies these are. Don't want them to be dismissive, when there is every reason to be cautious after seeing the scams the pdl companies will pull.

While the actual acct number may not be accessible, at the least the bank that accepted the money order, or a check, is easily determined. That info HAS to go through the federal reserve system so that the funds/credits can be transferred between institutions.

And once they have the bank name, I wouldn't pull anything past them. For instance, having some sort of quasi-legal paperwork drawn up trying to withdraw funds. We've seen other tricks they've pulled, I don't trust the companies and I don't want to see anyone get into any additional financial trouble because of these companies.

If Rio was to call our bank, are they allowed to give out account information?

Tammy, no the bank can't give out info. That is a violation of privacy. What we were allowed to do, is verify that the person was an acct holder IF there was someone in front of us, that asked to deposit to someone's acct. We could look up the acct number, and give a written receipt acknowledging that person X made a deposit into person Y's acct. So no acct number information is available.
But if they were served with papers, then they could be required to give garnish etc. But that is a very hypothetical situation because I can't see a pdl going through the cost of filing suit to get a garnishment.
I don't mean to alarm you, or anyone. As polly wrote, I'm a paranoid person as well.

Hey I went to lunch and you guys made me look paranoid in the meantime! No fair!! But you're right about the paypal thing didn't even think about it.

(See what happens when you leave this place!! :D )

more importantly here, they would be utterly stupid (and I don't think they are) to try and withdraw money after the face.. This would be a federal crime and I don't think they want that... thats teh reason they are willing to refund.. they know they are on shakey ground and don't want to take the chance of getting hammered in court.. Its kind of like the whole sales tax over the internet.. how many of us who live in sales tax states pay our state sales tax on what we buy? I bet the answer is, we only pay when the site collects it? if so, this really falls under the same legal argument that PDL's use regrading jurisdiction of a loan... Now alot of websites today colelct sales tax, why? because states started goig after those that were not and collected big money....

So I guess my comment is, I would not be paranoid

hey that was me above, forgot to log in DOOOOHHHHH

Oh wow, now I have something new to worry about. Isn't it a felony to withdraw funds from an account without permission. I know my bank offers a fraud alert to put on your account..I think I will be talking to them about that. But...If you just cash it at the bank and not deposit it, you shouldn't have anything to worry about, right?

Yeah I'm among the Queens of Paranoia here, but it will still have the bank's locating info on it.
But like I said, it would take many steps for them to be able to do anything else. I would definitely have a warning of some kind put on your acct, because once they do have the new bank's name, well the companies already have our name, address, phone #, DOB, SSN etc... though if one of them did get caught that would be some serious, serious trouble.