On the 8th of December I noticed a problem with my bank account, I was $-73.97, overdrawn. I did some quick investigating, and made some phone calls, and sent some emails. I am unemployed and had no more money coming into my account until my next pension check on the 1st of January. Here is what I found out. On 29 October I had gone to a website for payday loans. I had actually been looking for a 100 day loan, but the computer sites kept connecting me with payday loans. On one of the sites, there was a pop up window for discount gas card, and discount cards for other items. I scanned through the info, found out there was a charge of $49.90 and quickly exited. I did not want an additional charge, I was looking for a loan because I was unemployed and waiting for Social Security to start. This was on 29 October. The money $49.90 was taken out of my bank account on 7 Dec. For some reason, they waited 5 weeks before taking the money. When I phoned them, their representative said that I had agreed to the charge by opening the pop up window. I told him, " Duh, what else would you say to justify taking money? Would you admit to taking money without permission?" I asked to talk to his boss, and he said that he did not have a boss, only the owner and the owner does not take phone calls. He said he would refund the money but it would take until 28 Dec to do so. I told him that was ridiculous. No respectable company takes 21 days for a refund. I contacted the State Attorney General for Wyoming and complained. I got a response from a Mr Kebin Haller, Deputy State Attorney Office. He phoned me and told me on the phone that the Wyoming office is just a "Paper Business Office". A Business paper was filed with the State of Wyoming, but no actual physical address is occupied by Direct Benefits Group. It is used only as a contact location. No employees work there. It is paper only, not actual. There physical location is in the State of Utah. This sounds like a really odd way to do business to me, at least for a respectable business, but what do I know? Anyway, Mr Haller assured me that I would get my refund. It has been a week now, and I don't have it. I have changed my bank account to prevent any future attempts. My bank also charges me $25 a week for each week I am overdrawn. If it takes me 3 weeks to get my refund, that will be $75 for the bank, $49.90 for the refund, $29 to change my bank account. It will cost me $54.10 even if I get my refund. On top of that, I will spend Christmas with no money, my bank account will be overdrawn. If they had sent a refund within 3 to 5 business days, (Standard practice for most businesses), this whole situation could have been prevented.
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