I understand that under federal law a bank must stop making automatic deductions from my checking account if I instruct them to do so. Before I learned of this I asked my bank to stop the deductions from a phone company from whom I had disconnected. A bank phone service rep said that the bank could not do that and that it was up to the phone company.
The phone company withdrew an extra monthly payment even though I met their deadline for informing them to stop service (their payments were structured as a set fee, deducted for the upcoming month). Where can I find this federal law so that I might show it to my bank?
If you ask your bank to stop payment on a specific scheduled deduction by a third party from your account, you can do so if you contact the bank at least two business days before the deduction is scheduled, but that only addresses one transfer or deduction in a series if you've previously authorized someone (in your case the phone company) to charge your account each month. If you tell the bank you are canceling your authorization for the phone company to complete any future deductions, the bank can ask you to provide evidence (such as a copy of your written revocation) that you've done so, and must give you up to fourteen days to provide that documentation.
If you provide the documentation, the bank is required to block all further deductions based on the revoked authorization. If you fail to provide the documentation within fourteen days, the bank is allowed to discontinue its block on those deductions until it does receive the copy of your revocation. However, you still retain the right to enter a claim with the bank that the final deduction from your account was not authorized. Do so quickly, however, to help the bank recover the funds from the phone company.
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If you ask your bank to stop payment on a specific scheduled deduction by a third party from your 