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Last reviewed October 8, 2026 by Jackson McMillan, Florida attorney
What a fraud claim denial really means
A denial letter may say little more than that the bank reviewed your claim and found no error. When a card or phone was stolen, the stated reason may be that the purchases used your chip and PIN, or that the transfers came from your own device. Of course they did. A thief holding your card or your unlocked phone is using your access, and that is exactly the situation the federal rules were written for.
A denial is a decision by the bank, not a ruling by a court. The bank has to put its reasons in writing and let you know you're entitled to copies of the records behind the decision. That file can reveal whether anyone actually looked at your claim. Federal regulators have treated denials that rest only on an automated fraud filter or a form letter as unreasonable investigations.
Why a stolen card or phone counts as unauthorized
Money that leaves your account electronically, through debit card purchases, ATM withdrawals, online and app transfers, or Zelle payments from a bank account, is covered by a federal law called the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. Its regulation, called Regulation E, fills in the details. The rules call a transfer unauthorized when another person makes it without your permission and you receive no benefit from it. A thief using your stolen card, PIN, or phone has no permission from you, so those transactions are unauthorized.
Two more rules matter in a denial. First, the bank carries the burden of proving a transaction was authorized; you don't have to prove it wasn't. Second, your own carelessness, like keeping your PIN in your wallet or leaving your phone unlocked, can't be used to make you pay more. If the bank's letter leans on either point, that's a red flag.
One limit to be honest about: if a stranger talked you into sending money yourself, say to a fake contractor, federal law generally doesn't call that payment unauthorized. Theft cases are different, and the details of how each dollar left your account decide which rules apply.
How much of the loss the bank can put on you
When a card, PIN, or phone is lost or stolen, your maximum share depends on how quickly you reported it after learning it was gone (12 C.F.R. § 1005.6):
| Your report came | Your maximum share |
|---|---|
| Within 2 business days after you learned of the loss or theft | $50, or less if less was taken before you reported |
| After 2 business days | Up to $500: the first $50, plus later losses the bank shows a prompt report would have stopped |
| Over 60 days after the bank sent out the statement listing the theft | Also any transfers made after that 60-day window and before you reported, if the bank shows a timely report would have prevented them |
The bank must extend these time limits to a reasonable period when extenuating circumstances, such as extended travel or a hospital stay, caused your delay. If storm damage kept you out of your home or away from your mail, explain that to the bank in writing, and tell me too.
Before you accept the denial, sign a new claim form, or call the bank again, send me the letter and your statements so I can check them against the rules the bank had to follow.
St. Petersburg and Pinellas County after Helene and Milton
In 2024, Helene's storm surge in September and Hurricane Milton in October left many Pinellas County homes and rentals damaged. If yours was one of them, you know recovery can mean temporary housing, storage units, crews coming and going, and long stretches without watching your mail or your banking app. That is when a card can disappear without anyone noticing for a while. Downtown St. Pete, Old Northeast, Kenwood, Shore Acres, the Gulf beaches: the federal protections work the same way across Tampa Bay, and they cover students at the USF St. Petersburg campus too.
I take cases from St. Petersburg and across Pinellas County. With a denied claim, I build a timeline of when the card or phone went missing, when you found out, and when you reported it, because those dates control your share of the loss. Then I request the bank's investigation documents and compare them with the deadlines it had to meet. Pinellas and Pasco counties together form the Sixth Judicial Circuit, and the federal law allows a case to be filed in state court as well as federal court.
One caution about older losses: if your theft happened during the 2024 storms, the one-year deadline to sue may have passed for some claims. Still, when the claim is about how the bank handled your report, the clock can start at the bank's misstep rather than at the theft, so send me the dates and I'll check.
Storms create more than one kind of mess around Tampa Bay. If a storm-damaged rental ended with your landlord holding onto your money, read how St. Petersburg tenants get a security deposit back. If the thief also used your information to open accounts, my guide to credit report errors in St. Petersburg explains what the credit bureaus must do.
What a denied claim can be worth
A bank that violates the Electronic Fund Transfer Act can be sued for your actual damages, statutory damages between $100 and $1,000, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs. Actual damages start with what the thief took and can include related harm. A denial can raise the stakes further. If the bank let the 10-day window pass without a provisional credit, and either its investigation wasn't made in good faith or nothing reasonable supported its no-error finding, the law allows triple your actual damages. The same goes for a bank that knowingly and willfully finds no error that the evidence couldn't reasonably support.
Because the law shifts reasonable attorney's fees and costs to the bank when a consumer wins, a claim over a few hundred dollars can still be worth bringing. You don't pay me unless you win. I take these cases on contingency: no attorney's fees and no case costs owed to me unless you recover money. If a case is lost, a court can sometimes order the losing side to pay the other side's court costs, and some Florida laws, including the security deposit and deceptive practices statutes, also let the winner recover attorney's fees from the loser. I explain that risk before anything is filed, and every term is in a written agreement before you sign. You can read more about these claims on my page about what to do when a bank denies your fraud claim.
Deadlines after a denial
Two clocks matter now. The first is the 60-day period that starts when the bank sends the statement listing the theft; if any transaction still hasn't been reported, report it today in writing. The second is the one-year deadline to sue. When a bank breaks the investigation rules, that year can start when the bank missed its own deadline instead of on the day of the theft. Don't sit on a denial letter.
What to do this week
- Ask the bank in writing for copies of every document it relied on to deny your claim, and keep a copy of your request.
- Cancel the card, sign your stolen phone out of your banking and payment apps, and change your passwords.
- Gather proof of when the card or phone went missing: a police report if you made one, texts to family, an insurance claim, photos, or moving and storage receipts.
- Keep a call log with the date, the representative's name, and the claim number for every conversation with the bank.
- Save every statement from the month before the theft through today. Use the step-by-step guide to disputing unauthorized transactions for anything not yet reported.
- Send it to me. Request a free case review and attach the denial letter and statements. I'll tell you whether the denial holds up and what I'd do about it.