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Citizens Bank

 

RED-e-SPENDSM  General Purpose Reloadable Debit Card

This Cardholder Agreement ("Agreement"), including the Fee Schedule and Citizens Bank Privacy Statement, provided to you, contains the terms for the Citizens Bank RED-e-SPENDSM Prepaid Debit Card issued to you by Citizens Bank.  By activating and/or using this Card, you agree to the terms of this Agreement.  Please read this Agreement carefully and keep it, along with any amendments, for future reference.

 1.  DEFINITIONS. The following definitions shall be used in this agreement: 

(a) ATM” means an automated teller machine.
(b)“Card Account” means the records we maintain to account for the value of claims associated with your Card.
(c)“Card” means the RED-e-SPEND prepaid debit card issued to you by Citizens Bank. 
(d)“PIN” means personal identification number.
(e)“Point of Sale (POS)” is the electronic movement of funds from your card to a deposit account of a Merchant for the purpose of obtaining goods and services.
(f)“You” or “your” mean the person or persons who have received the Card and are authorized to use the Card as provided for in this Agreement.
(g)“We,” “us,” and “our” mean Citizens Bank, and our successors, affiliates and assignees. 

 

2.  DESCRIPTION OF YOUR CARD. The Card is a prepaid debit card, and is not a credit card or a gift card.  Your Card does not constitute a checking or savings account and is not connected in any way to any other account you may have with us.   You will not receive interest on the funds on your Card.  Amounts loaded on your Card are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation up to the maximum amount provided by applicable law.  The Card is not for resale.  The Card is nontransferable, and it may be canceled, repossessed, or revoked at any time without cause or prior notice, subject to applicable law.  The Card will expire three (3) years from the date that it is issued and you will be issued a new Card if there are funds still available on the Card.  The maximum number of General Purpose Cards per cardholder is one (1).

3.  OBTAINING YOUR CARD. To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, we are required to obtain, verify and record information that identifies each person who activates a prepaid debit card. When you apply for the Card, we will ask for your name, address, date of birth and other information that will allow us to identify you. We may also ask to see your driver’s license or other identifying documents.

4.   USING YOUR TEMPORARY CARD AND ACTIVATING YOUR PERSONALIZED CARD.  You will receive a temporary Card that may only be used at POS terminals where your signature is required for authorization and to load funds to the temporary card.  You will be issued a personalized Card that will need to be activated by following the instructions on the Card.   Once you activate the personalized Card, the amount remaining on the temporary card will be transferred to your personalized card and you will no longer be able to use the temporary card.  

5.  USING YOUR CARD. The Card, with your PIN, allows you to access the funds loaded to your Card by you or on your behalf.  You acknowledge and agree that the value available on your Card is limited to the funds that you have loaded onto the Card or have been loaded into the Card on your behalf. You can use your Card to:

  • purchase goods and services anywhere Visa® debit cards are accepted;
  • get cash back when you use your Card to purchase goods and services;
  • access cash at ATMs;
  • access cash at any Citizens Bank branch location; or
  • transfer funds to or from any Citizens Bank checking or savings account or similar account at another financial institution. 

Each time you use the Card to purchase goods and services, you authorize us to charge the amount against the amount available on your Card.  The maximum amount that may be withdrawn from an ATM per day is $500.00. The maximum amount that may be withdrawn at a Bank branch per day is the available balance on your Card.  You do not have the right to stop payment on any purchase or payment transaction originated by your Card.  You may not make preauthorized recurring payments from your Card. 

6.  LOADING YOUR CARD.   You may add funds to your card at any time.  Funds may be added to your Card:

  • at a Citizens Bank branch,
  • at any Visa ReadyLink retail location,
  • by transferring funds from your Citizens Bank checking or savings account to your Card,
  • by transferring funds from a deposit account at another financial institution to your Card, or
  • by a direct deposit to your Card.  

The minimum amount you may add to your card at anytime is $20.00.   The maximum amount that may be added to your card is $3,000.00 per day and $10,000.00 per month.  The balance of your Card may not exceed $10,000.00.  

7.  AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS LOADED TO THE CARD. Funds loaded at a Citizens Bank branch or Visa ReadyLink location or through a direct deposit to your card are available immediately.  Funds transferred from a Citizens Bank checking or savings Account or other similar account held at another financial institution will be available in three (3) business days following the date of the transfer. 

8.  RETURNS & REFUNDS. If you are entitled to a refund for any reason for goods or services obtained with your Card, you agree to accept credits to your Card for such refunds and agree to the refund policy of that merchant.  If you have a problem with a purchase that you made with your card, of if you have a dispute with the merchant, you must handle it directly with the merchant.

9.  AUTHORIZATION AND AUTHORIZATION HOLDS. When you use your Card to pay for goods or services, certain merchants may ask us to authorize the transaction in advance and may estimate its final value.  When we authorize the transaction, we commit to make the requested funds available when the transaction finally settles and may place a temporary hold on the amount indicated by the merchant on your Card.  If the amount of the authorization request exceeds the value on your Card, the transaction may be declined.  Until the transaction finally settles, the funds are subject to the hold and will not be available to you for other purposes. 

10.  FEES.   We will charge you, and you agree to pay, the fees and charges set forth in the Fee Schedule.  We will deduct fees automatically from the Card balance at the time the fee is incurred. 

11.   BUSINESS DAYS. Our business days are Monday through Friday.  Holidays are not included.  We reserve the right to change our business days; however, we will provide you notice of any change.

12.  CHARGES.  Except for the fees listed in the Fee Schedule, we will not impose any charge for your use of an ATM to make electronic fund transfers to or from your Card provided that such transfers are initiated from a Citizens Bank ATM.  We may impose a charge for all electronic fund transfers to or from your Card that are initiated from the following:

  • A nonproprietary ATM (ATMs other than Citizens Bank ATMs)
  • A POS transaction
  • A home personal computer access
  • Bank Central® services

We may impose an additional charge for each balance inquiry that you may make from a nonproprietary ATM.  See your Fee Schedule for a list of all charges associated with use of the Card.  If you perform a transaction at a nonproprietary ATM, you may be charged a fee by the operator of the machine or any national, regional or local network utilized to effect the transaction.  We reserve the right to change existing charges and to impose additional charges in the future. In such event we will give you at least 21 days notice of the change or additional charge(s) and the method we will use to assess them prior to the time they take effect.

13.  DISCLOSURE OF ACCOUNT INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES.  We will disclose information to third parties about your Card or the transfers you make:

  • Where it is necessary for completing transfers;
  • In order to verify the existence and condition of your Card Account for a third party, such as a credit bureau or merchant;
  • In order to comply with a government agency or court order; or,
  • If you give us your written permission.

14.  TRANSACTION DOCUMENTATION. You can get a receipt at the time you make transfers to or from your Card Account using an ATM or POS terminal.  Usually, the ATM or POS terminal will provide the receipt at the time you make the transfer.  If the ATM fails to provide a receipt at that time, please contact ATM Card Services, 328 S. Saginaw St, MC#003025, Flint, MI  48502 or call 1-800-806-1692 and we will send you a receipt of your transaction.  You should retain a receipt for your records.  You are responsible for keeping track of the available balance on your Card.  You may check the balance of your Card by calling 1-800-806-1692 or online at https://www.consumercardaccess.com/redespend.  You will not automatically receive a statement from us.  You may request a paper statement for a fee. 

15.  TRANSACTIONS THAT EXCEED YOUR CARD BALANCE. You are not allowed to exceed the available amount on your Card. If a transaction exceeds the balance of the amount available on your Card, then you shall remain fully liable to us for the amount of the transaction and any applicable fees or charges and will reimburse us immediately for that amount.  If you fail to reimburse us, we will have the right to institute collection proceedings and you agree to be liable for all costs incurred for said collection, including actual attorney fees.  In addition, we shall have the right to deduct any amount owed to us by you as a result of your use of the Card against future load amounts to the Card or against any Bank checking or savings account.

16.  BANK’S LIABILITY FOR FAILURE TO MAKE TRANSFERS. If we do not complete a transfer to or from your Card on time or in the correct amount according to our Agreement with you, we will be liable for losses or damages.  However, there are some exceptions.  We will NOT be liable, for instance:

(a) If, through no fault of ours, you do not have enough money on your Card to make the transfer.
(b)If the transfer would go over the amount available on your Card.
(c)If the ATM where you are making the transfer does not have enough cash or does not otherwise support a particular service.
(d)If the ATM was not working properly or your Card was damaged and you knew about the breakdown or damage when you started the transfer.
(e)If the Card is frozen because of court order or other similar reasons.
(f)If circumstances beyond our control (such as fire or flood) prevent the transfer despite reasonable precautions which we have taken.

17.  IN CASE OF ERRORS OR QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR ELECTRONIC TRANSFERS. If you think there is an error on your Card or your receipt is wrong or need more information about a transaction, please telephone us at 1-800-806-1692 or write ATM Card Services, 328 S. Saginaw Street, MC#003025, Flint, MI  48502. We must hear from you no later than sixty (60) days after the error appeared.

(a) Tell us your name and Card number (if any).
(b)Describe the error or transfer you are unsure about, and explain as clearly as you can why you believe it is an error or why you need more information.
(c)Tell us the dollar amount of the suspected error.
(d)If you tell us orally, we may require that you send us your complaint or question in writing within ten (10) business days.

We will determine whether an error occurred within ten (10) business days after we hear from you and will correct any error promptly.  If we need more time, however, we may take up to forty- five (45) days to investigate your complaint or question.    If we decide to do this, we will credit your Card within ten (10) business days for the amount you think is in error, so that you have the use of the money during the time it takes us to complete our investigation.  If we ask you to put your complaint or question in writing and we do not receive this within ten (10) business days, we may not re-credit your Card.
For investigations pertaining to POS transactions or foreign initiated transactions we may take up to ninety (90) days to investigate your complaint or question.  We will tell you the results within three (3) business days after completing our investigation.  If we decide that an error did not occur we will send you a written explanation. You may ask for copies of the documents that we used in our investigation.  We may charge a nominal fee to cover our costs of copying these documents.

18.  ERRORS OR QUESTIONS REGARDING POS TRANSACTIONS.  In addition to your rights regarding error resolution as outlined in Section 17, the Michigan Electronic Funds Transfers Act (“Act”) provides that you have the right to reverse any POS transaction of $50 or more, if you:

a) Make a good faith effort to resolve the dispute with the merchant and provide assurance that the goods purchased will be returned;
(b)Request within four (4) calendar days of the purchase and during our normal business hours, that we reverse a transaction; and,
(c)Verify any oral request in writing within fourteen (14) days following your notice to us. You agree that we are not responsible or liable for any defects in items purchased through the POS system.

The agency that monitors compliance with this Act is the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation, , PO Box 30224, Lansing, MI 48909.

19.  ERRORS ON YOUR CARD ACCOUNT. We may correct any posting error, clerical error, error resulting from computer malfunction, etc. that we deem to be debited, credited or otherwise reflected incorrectly on your Card without advance notice.

20.  REPORTING UNAUTHORIZED TRANSACTIONS. If you believe your Card or PIN has been lost or stolen or if you believe a transfer has been or may be made without your permission, immediately call: 1-800-806-1692.  In addition, you may write to ATM Card Services, 328 S. Saginaw Street, MC#003025, Flint, MI, 48502.
If you believe there are unauthorized transactions on your statement, notification should be confirmed in writing as soon as possible as outlined in Section 17.

21.  LIABILITY FOR UNAUTHORIZED TRANSACTIONS. Tell us AT ONCE if you believe your Card or PIN has been lost or stolen or if you believe that a transfer has been made without your permission.  Telephoning is the best way of keeping your possible losses down.  You could lose all the funds available on your card.  If you tell us within two (2) business days, you can lose no more than $50 if someone used your Card and/or PIN without your permission.

If you do NOT tell us within two (2) business days after you learn of the loss or theft of your Card and/or PIN, and we can prove we could have stopped someone from using your Card and/or PIN without your permission if you had told us, you could lose as much as $500.

Also, if your Card activity shows transfers that you did not make tell us at once.  If you do not tell us within 60 days after the error appeared, you may not get back any money you lost after the 60 days if we can prove that we could have stopped someone from taking the money if you had told us in time.  If a good reason (such as a long trip or a hospital stay) kept you from telling us, we will extend the time period a reasonable length of time.

22. ILLEGAL ACTIVITY. You agree that the Card will not be used for any purpose that would be in violation of the law.  We reserve the right to decline any transaction which we believe or suspect is prohibited or illegal.

23.  INTERNATIONAL CARD TRANSACTIONS. International transactions processed through Visa will be assessed an International Service Assessment Fee (“ISA Fee”).  Transactions processed in a foreign currency that require a currency conversion to U.S. dollars (“multi-currency transaction”), will be assessed a 1% ISA fee.  The exchange rate used for processing a multi-currency transaction is a rate selected by Visa from the range of rates available in wholesale currency markets for the applicable central processing date, which may vary from the rate Visa itself receives or the government-mandated rate in effect for the applicable central processing date. For transactions settled in U.S. dollars, with no currency conversion (“single-currency transaction”), an ISA fee of 0.8% will be assessed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

24.  AMENDMENT. We may, from time to time, alter, change or add to this Agreement.  We will notify you of any and all such changes, alterations and amendments as required by applicable law.  Your continued use of this Card evidences your agreement to any change or amendment. 

25.  NOTICE. Any notices required by this Agreement shall be sent to you via U.S. Mail, postage pre-paid, to the last known address shown on our records for the Card or sent to you electronically if you have consented to the Electronic Communications for your account.  You are responsible for notifying us of any address changes or with any other information affecting your Card.  Notices to us must be in writing and are not effective until we have received it and have a reasonable opportunity to act on it. If we have an incorrect address for you we may stop sending notices and your statements until you specifically make a written request for resumption of such mailings and you supply us with a proper address.  Your failure to provide us with correct address information does not relieve you from your continuing duty to review your Card transactions and to advise us of any errors or discrepancies in the handling of your Card, all within the time limits specified elsewhere in this Agreement.  You should send all Card correspondence to Deposit Accounting at the address indicated above or on your statement.

26.  WAIVER. If we fail or refuse to exercise any of our rights provided for herein, we do not waive them and we may exercise them in the future.

27.  GOVERNING LAW. This agreement shall be governed in accordance with the laws of the State in which the Card was issued. 

28.  ENTIRETY. This Agreement embodies the entire agreement between us and supersedes all prior agreements and understandings, both written and oral.

29.   HEADINGS AND CAPTIONS. Section headings are for convenience or reference only and shall in no way affect interpretation of this Agreement.

30.  SEVERABILITY. The invalidity or unenforceability of any one or more of the phrases, sentences, clauses, or sections of this Agreement shall not affect the validity of enforceability of the remaining portions of this Agreement, or any part thereof. 

31.  RIGHT OF SET OFF. You agree that we may set off any debt you owe us now or later from your Card Account.  We may exercise this right of set off, with or without notice, any time any debt you owe us is due and payable.  Under certain circumstances we will not exercise our right of set off if the debt arises from a consumer credit transaction under a credit card plan; if your debt is personal and your right of withdrawal rises solely in a representative capacity; or if such exercises are prohibited by law.