Debt/Consumer Based

This post is more of a question/story post. About two months ago my debit card number was stolen and somebody was able to order things online using my card number. The person using my card was then able to keep using my card until they got to an account balance of -$500. The question that arose was, how could they spend money that I did not have? Well the bank gave me an interesting explanation. I was told that in case I was using the card and i purchased something that was for example, $100, and I only had $75 in my account. Instead of the card being denied, the bank would let the charge go through to..."save embarrassment". This answer really made me think, why would a bank care if you were embarrassed. Then I was told about the over withdrawl charges, and the interest that I would have received if this were really me that made these purchases. The bank "lends" money to their customers so they aren't embarrassed? No the bank lends the money so that they can then make a profit when the customer pays them back. I would have never realized all of this if it weren't for somebody getting ahold of my card number and getting my balance so low. Another question that I had was, why did they let it get to -$500? This is still an unanswered question that I have. This story plays into the lesson taught in class about debt and the consumer based economy. With banks being able to lend the money and then charge their customers with fees and interest, they are actually putting the customer even more in debt. The idea of the bank lending money sounds like a good idea at first but then it comes back to haunt the customer in the end. The link that I have attached is an article from msnbc.com about how debit cards are being targeted more because of their PIN numbers. The article is very informative and those with debit cards should definitely take a look because you don't want to end up like me. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11731365/page/2/