CENTRAL FLORIDA,None — A mistake in the automatic bill pay for State Farm credit card holders deducted $20,000 each from thousands of customers.
WFTV spoke with a local woman who lost all access to her cash and doesn't know when she'll get it back. Karen Macri was stunned when she logged on to her Bank of America account Monday morning.
"Low and behold, I was negative $19,971," Macri said.
After making numerous calls to her bank, Macri discovered State Farm is to blame. She has a State Farm credit card and several insurance policies with the company.
An internal memo from a State Farm employee revealed the company incorrectly debited more than $20,000 from some customers who have State Farm Visa cards attached to their bank accounts.
Nearly 13,000 customers are affected
"I have no money, no access to any money. All of my money was in that one account," she said.
Macri had to borrow money from her kids to put gas in her car.
"I think it's crazy. Absolutely crazy," she said.
State Farm told WFTV the vendor that processes online transactions is to blame.
"If it was a vendor error, I think it should be easily and quickly reversed as quickly as they did it they should be able to reverse it," Macri said.
State Farm told her the problem would be corrected Monday night, but when she logged on again Tuesday morning, her account was still in the red.
Macri now worries who else could compromise her information through State Farm. Now, she plans to send her business elsewhere.
"It scared me enough to explore other options. I have a lot of policies with State Farm and they are not being a good neighbor to me," she said.
A State Farm spokesman told WFTV the company is working quickly to credit customers' accounts and pay all overdraft fees.
State Farm set up a special hotline to help anyone who had their account incorrectly debited. The number is 1-877-734-8472