In yesterday’s USA Today, Kathy Chu offered tips to help consumers with disputes on credit card charges. This is a nice companion piece to this morning’s GRS post about thwarting credit-card company tricks.
“No industry statistics are available about how often such disputes are won by consumers,” Chu writes. “But to maximize their chances, consumers should know how to navigate the maze of rules governing credit card disputes.” She shares five ways to increase your odds of winning a dispute:
- Get it in writing. Save receipts and warrantees. Ask for written confirmation of promises such as delivery dates.
- Know the rules. “The Fair Credit Billing Act gives consumers the right to dispute a credit card purchase or withhold payment for a card purchase — but only under certain conditions.” Be aware of the FCBA page at the Federal Trade Commission web site — and refer to it when you have problems.
- File the dispute carefully. Be accurate when filing your claim, and seek maximum protection.
- Be prepared to arbitrate. Though most disputes are resolved before arbitration, a small percentage are actually decided by the credit card companies themselves.
- File a complaint elsewhere. If you’re unhappy with the resolution of your dispute, contact other agencies, such as your state attorney general’s office or the local Better Business Bureau.
Lastly you should get free credit report to maintain your credit card transaction.
I’ve never had to dispute a credit card transaction, but my wife has. It was a nightmare.
In 1998, we took a vacation to British Columbia. One night we had dinner at a cafe in Stanley Park. When we returned home, Kris discovered that the transaction had been billed twice — as if the waiter had made a mistake while running the card through the computer. She spent weeks (months?) trying to get her credit card company to remove the charge, but they wouldn’t budge. She never did get her money back, so she canceled the card and refuses to do business with the issuer.
If we’d known about these tips ten years ago, maybe she could have recovered her $25. For more complete information on disputing credit card charges, read the full article.
This article is about Consumerism, Credit Cards, Money Hacks
I’ve had to have charges reversed on my credit cards and debit card four or five times in my life, and was met only with success. Granted, these charges were for less-than $20 usually, so it was nothing huge.
I’m not sure if the law has changed, but I’d like to add that you should always submit your dispute in writing, a nice typed letter with your signature, via snail-mail. If you call your credit card to bring up the issue over the phone, they can ignore it like it never happened. Once its in writing they are required by law to at least respond. From then on its up to them whether or not they want to be jerks about it.
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I think one of the “hip” new unethical things to do as a business is to offer a product cheaply and then keep billing the consumer monthly while sending them a product they didn’t know they signed up for (probably somewhere in the fine print). This happened with my wife and a vitamin she ordered on the internet. I guess she saw it advertised on Oprah and thought it would be legit because of that. She ended up having to cancel the card and having it reissued with a new number. Luckily, the credit card company agreed to take the charges off.
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I once disputed a charge regarding an online order. The company had no phone number and I had emailed multiple times without getting an answer. I contacted Chase regarding next steps, faxed them my correspondence and they refunded the charge within a few days. Months later when the online company finally refunded me for being “out of stock,” Chase took their money back before I could even notice what happened. Overall they made the procedure extremely easy and painless for me.
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Timely. I am in the middle of disputing a charge. I authorized Amerisave to bill me directly for an appraisal. I had just had an appraisal so we were discussing our ability to use my old one. I wound up dumping them completely as a broker, but they still charged me for an appraisal that never happened. I have asked repeatedly for them to reverse the charge with no satisfaction so I am trying to go through the credit card company. Now I’m looking back and feeling really stupid because all of my questions were answered verbally over the phone and I don’t have as much documentation as I would like.
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Oooh, PF Playbook, you reminded me of a similar situation in my own life recently.
I like Audible. I subscribed to the site for many years. I thought I unsubscribed in the fall of 2007, but apparently not. (As those who read my post asking for audiobook recommendations will remember.)
Actually, what I think happened was I tried to unsubscribe, but didn’t. I know this because after getting audiobook recommendations from GRS readers, I tried to cancel my account at the end of 2008. No dice. There is no obvious way to do it. I searched all over the site, and there’s only one thing that says how to do it, and those instructions are wrong. (They refer to a link that does not exist.)
Well, Audible has been sending me messages that say “we can’t renew your membership because your card has expired — we’ll be forced to cancel your account”. I haven’t replied, and I haven’t updated my credit card information. If this is the only way to cancel, so be it.
I hate broken business models like that. They’re designed to screw the customer. I used to be a huge Audible evangelist. Now I have mixed feelings. And as you can tell since I’m sharing the info here, I’m not afraid to share how cranky I am about this experience.
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I recently got ripped off by RegFly.com which was formerly RegisterFly.com. I used my Bank of America (Visa) debit card and was blown away when BofA gave me an immediate credit of the money I paid to RegFly.com!
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I’ve only been doubled charged for an item. The charge was taken away immediately. On a separate issue, we had a bank account number stolen from a local business we shopped. The money ($1500) was given back to us in a matter of days.
Good post!
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I’ve disputed 2 charges in the past, both were successful with minimal trouble. The first time was years ago with MasterCard, a storage company had billed me for a full month extra usage beyond my move-out date after I ended my contract (about $100). I had to fax in a receipt showing a $0.00 balance on my move-out date, but once I did MasterCard promptly refunded the charges.
The second time was just last week. I moved 3 months ago and canceled my cable internet service in the process. The cable company billed me for another month of service (about $50) – 2 weeks after I had canceled the service! While they were quick to acknowledge the error on their part, actually getting the refund proved to be quite difficult. After several weeks of back-and-forth with the cable company I called up American Express and they reversed the charge within 2 minutes. I was even past the “60 day limit” for disputes defined in the fine print on my statement but they didn’t even mention it. I am now showing a credit on my account for the full amount owed.
I assume my years of history with these credit cards without disputes makes me trustworthy enough when I do call up with a dispute. My advice: don’t abuse this protection and hopefully you’ll have no trouble when you do need it! If my credit card company refused this protection I’d promptly cancel the card, or at least stop using it for good. No company deserves my business if they don’t offer something in return, especially when I need their help the most.
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Similar story to those above… I tried out Match.com, went for “one” six month period. But without really spelling it out, they set it up for you to automatically renew every six months. With no warning. And they refused to refund the charge even though I immediately asked about it and asked to have it canceled and refunded. So I went through my credit card company. All it took was a copy of my statements showing the charges and a copy of the emails I had sent to Match.com. It really wasn’t all that much trouble and it saved me around $80.
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I’m going through the same thing with match.com! Those snakes! I have filled out a dispute through my bank. Hopefully, they can resolve it. Although, mine is a $127 charge!
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This is where it’s good to be with a big bank, with streamlined fraud handling department. Once, after I got back from a trip to South America, I discovered ~$3500 in unauthorized charges on my card. I wasn’t on the phone with Chase for thirty seconds before they said, “OK, sir, you’re all set”, the charges were removed immediately, and I never heard about the matter again. I’ve also had unauthorized transactions on my debit card, and Chase also refunded them immediately. And I’ve had similarly stellar service from BofA and Citi. One short phone call, and the matter is resolved.
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I recently had an issue at a Quizno’s where the guy swiped my card twice. I actually called the restaurant back and worked it from that angle and was met with success. It took me 3 calls, but I finally got the store manager who seemed to understand what he was talking about at least. He was actually super helpful and didn’t even ask for any documentation, although I did save the receipt with all the relevant numbers and the documentation from my credit card company to prove my case. Never underestimate asking the business first, sometimes they actually surprise you with good customer service. I will definitely be bookmarking this post in case it doesn’t work so well in the future though.
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My experience with the Better Business Bureau is that they are on the side of the business and they will not help you. All they do is contact the business and if the business refuses to give your money back, they don’t do anything else. That’s bull as far as I’m concerned!
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I had once tried to get a credit report online and the website said it was free but it required a credit card to “verify” that I am who I claim to be.
After a few months I received a bill on this card which I’ve never used for anything else. On that bill it was a subscription to an auto magazine which I never did. I called the credit card company (Discover) and they instructed me to call the 800 number that was associated with the company that charged me. So I did and I explained them that I did not sign up for anything and I just want my money back. The guy was trying to sell me other crap. He was like “Ok sir, do you know that we have bla bla… bla…” and I was “thank you, but I just want my charge reversed”, “ok, but have you heard about our … ” so this went on for like 10 minutes. At that point it just became hilarious. I think he was trying to beat me to finally accept something but I was more devilish than him and made my mind to actually beat him to this game so I just calmed myself down and lust started laughing or making noises on him but always rejecting offers and just repeating on and on the same thing like a parrot.
I think he got fed up and he said “you are all set”.
I got the transaction reversed in the next bill.
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My son bought $124 worth of clothing at Casual Male and after dh paid he realized they had forgotten to mention the 10% off coupon. So the guy rang him up again, and said he would reverse the first purchase. A few days later as I was checking our accounts, there were two charges. I called the store, they said they would check things out on their end. Then I called CHASE and let them know. They saw the charge and began the proceedings to reverse the first purchase right away. I was impressed at how fast they took care of things. The store called within half an hour and said they had found the two transactions and if CHASE had any problems with reversing, just call them. So for once, a win-win situation. Good customer service at both places.
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I had a success story with Chase MasterCard last year. I used my card to pay for a hair appointment and it was charged twice. I called Chase immediately after noticing it. I had to speak to a supervisor (of course), and what I found kind of ridiculous was she asked me why I thought it was a duplicate charge. I pointed out that the charges were for the same day, the same amount and had the same transaction number, and, I said, I certainly didn’t get my hair cut and colored TWICE in the same day. They had to contact my stylist’s bank, and they had to contact her, but it all worked out in the end and my money was credited back to my account.
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We had great luck with USAA. My husband ordered a $800 optical sight for his rifle before deploying to Iraq. The company, Cal Arms, never shipped the sight and refused to answer phone calls or emails regarding shipping date, tracking numbers or anything else. We called USAA with our problems, they reversed the charges and told us that if we had any problems with the merchant to have them call USAA. We got one nasty gram from Cal Arms, and told them to contact USAA, and we haven’t heard from them since.
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I’ve also had nothing but good luck with disputing charges. I have had to dispute credit card charges twice with my National City Visa (soon to be PNC), both due to errors by the businesses involved. I’ve also had to dispute a charge via PayPal for an Ebay item I never received. While all the amounts were less than $100, everything was as painless as it could be. I even phoned Nat’l City concerning the charges disputes and encountered no issues.
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I have a friend who works at a credit company, and she’s been telling me how much they’ve seen an increase in people disputing charges since about October of last year. She says they all admit they are much more aware of charges now that money is tighter in our current economy.
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I have never had to deal with a credit card dispute, but in dealing with other disputes with other businesses, I have noticed that calling them on the phone, and using a nice voice (no yelling) usually yields really good results.
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In the UK the process seems a little more streamlined, and is covered by the FSA (financial services association teh banking watchdog), there is an excellent resource at moneysavingexpert.com for UK credit card holder. Which tells you how to recover these type of payments along with unfair charges.
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when I was getting my MBA a couple of years back, I was working for a large credit card issuer. At that time, I remember that there was a “quiet” hidden policy to help fight the first dispute a customer may have for whatever the amount, but anything to happen the second time greater than $100, within 18months would have to be more rigorously examined where the CC company would try not to help as eagerly like the first instance.
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These are great tips. I’ve found the Better Business Bureau to be an especially effective means for getting a recalcitrant business to respond to me as a consumer. For example, my wife and I were having trouble getting a refund from Virgin Atlantic for a canceled flight. Virgin promised us the refund, but after three months of trading emails the credit still had not been processed. I finally filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau; three days later the refund showed up on our card, and we later received an apology letter and travel vouchers from Virgin.
I’ll try to resolve my complaint directly with the company first, but when that fails the BBB is a great way to get things moving.
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I was charged twice on my Discover for lunch at IKEA. I called Discover about it and they said they would look into it. I eventually got a letter that said they had reviewed the charges and “found them to be valid” (complete bull) but as a “courtesy” they were refunding the money. I couldn’t believe they were acting like they were doing me a favor. But, because of brand loyalty (this was my first credit card) I still have the card. But it made me so mad.
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I used to work arbitrating credit card disputes (representing the cardholder.)
I’ve seen some excellent advice in the comments. Keys are:
1) Make your dispute in WRITING, via snail-mail. Do it PROMPTLY (within 30 days.)
2) Keep a record of your letters, and for large amounts I’d even send the letter return receipt requested so you have documentation of the letter being sent.
3) Keep a TICKLER FILE for yourself, to remind yourself to follow up within a month of sending your letter, or of receiving a request from the bank for further documentation.
One of the most common reasons for problems with disputes was that either the cardholder or the merchant did not respond within the prescribed time window (around 30-45 days.) It is your responsibility to follow up to requests for documentation. If you do not respond in a timely fashion to a request for documentation, the dispute is settled in the merchant’s favor.
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The one time we had to dispute a credit card charge, it was through AMEX. We called them up and they reversed the charge no problem. End of story. I was amazed and quite impressed with AMEX.
$ Money Savin’ Momma $
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My local bank was more than helpful with a couple of bogus charges. One was from a hostel in London I had booked. A month after making reservations I found a $400 charge on my debit card from the UK. The website, I booked through was helpful and told me to cancel the card a discounted all my other stays as well as another hostel in London. My bank immediately refunded the money without question.
Recently I found a strange charge on my card. I called the number and found out it was for girls gone wild, I have never ordered from or had contact with them in any form. They stated I ordered from them on day I was 60 miles into a 80 mile backpacking trip. My bank again refunded my money without question and issued a new card. I found out that the company is known for getting card numbers and doing this. I also had used a gas station just prior to my trip that did not have pay at the pump. I had to leave my card with the clerk. I wonder if he was selling numbers. I did actually get the DVDs still wrapped up in my basement. I figured the company would want them back. I am not sure how long to hold onto them, but I am not going out of my way to help them out. I now keep enough cash to fill up if I can not pay at the pump.
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I think it is helpful to distinguish between different types of charges. Fraudulent activity is reported immediately to the credit card agency/bank/police. This is not a ‘dispute’ process.
Errors in billing (ie, being charged twice) are also not charges to be disputed initially. The proper course of action is to call the place who doubled charged you and have them issue a refund (also a good reason why you should hold onto receipts until charges appear on cards!). If they refuse, then you call your credit card company/bank to dispute the charge.
Disputing a charge works best when you’ve paid for a service that is not what it was supposed to be, or when the company is being misleading (ie, multiple billing, even though you’ve tried to get them to stop). It’s still best to contact the company first, so at least you have something tangible to explain to your card or bank.
I’ve only disputed a charge once. Ordered a product, and then decided I didn’t want it. Never opened, and mailed it back. Unfortunately, they received it 2 days after their 30-day return cut-off. I called them multiple times and they wouldn’t issue a refund (they offered to mail it back to me though!). I contacted the BBB, who basically did nothing. So I went online to my Amex account and clicked “dispute charge”. Simple online process. They reversed the charges immediately, and then spent a few weeks researching it, before ultimately coming down in my favor.
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I’ve also been fortunate with claiming disputed charges back.
However if I did have a problem I’d do exactly what Kris did in the article. It’s the only way that some organisations will learn, when people don’t use them because they ultimately don’t trust them.
What worries me though is just how many people are prepared to accept sub-standard service and carry on with that company as if nothing has happened.
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I had a total nightmare that lasted 3-4 months. I paid a credit card bill in full and my next bill did not reflect the credit. It did reflect a late fee and finance charges, however. I called my bank and the check had cleared my checking account several days after I mailed it. Problem? It was electronically converted and no one had a real copy of the check, the tracking number (or whatever they called it) didn’t tell them anything. Long story short, my bank had to fax information about 6 times, I had to call about 15 times, but could never talk to the same person, no one knew anything, etc. The entire time I was getting calls from them to pay my bill. Anyway,I sent a lengthy email detailing everything, I never heard from them again, but the charges were wiped off the account and the account was closed. I thought it was over until we got our credit report last week and the balance is still listed, so I have to call them again. Lesson: pay attention to your bills and keep great records.
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Another big yes for AMEX. I always had the best customer service experience with them on a few occasions.
KCDesi
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To that list of tips, I would also add, pay your bill electronically whenever you can. It creates an undisputable trail.
I actually had the worst experience of all just recently with AMEX, not with a transaction dispute, but with a finance charge dispute. I always pay off my balance in full, but last month American Express slapped me with a finance charge for processing my payment a day AFTER it was due. I pay electronically, and my bank (Citi) had a record of the payment being processed by AmEx before my payment was due.
AmEx previously had a history of double charging fees, incorrectly calculating my statement, etc. And when I called in to rectify those problems, they’d always take off the charges and apologize for their error. This time, they wouldn’t refund me the charge since they said I’d already had too many adjustments on my account, never mind that the previous adjustments were due to THEIR errors. Anyways, it took a couple weeks, 3 levels of supervisors, and a fax from my bank plus a conference call to get the charge cleared. Even though it was $20, it’s the principle– I’m not paying it if I don’t owe it. They wasted a ton of my time in the process as well, which is worth WAY more than $20.
Frankly, I think it’s disgusting that large corporations see consumers as their own bailout solution, and I think disputes will get a lot more difficult to resolve in these tough economic times. They need all the fees they can get, customer service be damned.
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I have a problem with a charge that I made. I got suckered into a company called Scooter’s Flashcast in Hollywood. They’re a non -agency kid’s talent show (something like that). When they emailed me and told me that my son’s picture was so cute that I can go in for an interview. Nothing was printed saying there was a fee.
I went there and waited for hours patiently and they told me that they’ll be a fee of $1495. They moved you from one person to another. They keep complimenting you and distracting me from reading any fine letterings. I just gave him my credit card and he just send us off. I went home and did a search on this company and found that this company is a scam and they owner Carl is a convicted felon crook. I tried filing a fraud and they said it’s not a fraud because I authorized it. They wanted me to dispute with the merchant , but I’m not confident. I signed and initialed everything he wanted me to.
Do you have any suggestion or advice for me as to how I can go about getting my money back? Thank you for reading.
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In the UK, anyone who has paid credit card charges by their credit card provider can claim back these charges.
I notice that a lot of people have been charged twice on their credit cards. This has happened to me when booking a hotel through Expedia. The hotel saw fit to charge me for the night’s stay without informing me that they were taking any money from my card – in fact they said the opposite. In the end I got my money back but they must overcharge a lot of people who don’t check their statements.
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I believe many so-called errors happen, because people simply don’t know the guidelines. I had worked a lot professionally with disputes on VISA and MasterCard transactions, and the example with the hotel (by: credit card charges) is a typical example of someone who:
1. either wanted to make an authorization, and debited
the card in stead, or
2. who wanted to secure a ‘no-show’, not knowing it is
not allowed to do this before the official arrival
date.
As with double debits as described in the original post, it is actually quite easy for the bank to get it back, since the merchant has to prove that each transaction has been authorized separately by the card holder (and not the other way around). Either, the bank’s staff was incompetent, or the bank actually did get the money back but did not pass it on to the card holder… but the latter is only mere speculation.
Cheers,
Aleks
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Knowing the guidelines of each credit card provider is a good start. So if the time comes that you need to make a dispute with their policies then you won’t need any outside help at all. It is true that giving credit card companies with dispute letters rather than calling them is the better way to make a complaint and it is their legal responsibility to comply with your complaints.
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I’m sure that most people are honest however I’ve seen my share of people who are nothing but scammers cheating the system. I have been a victim of credit card fraud and certainly was thankful I was not responsible for the charges. But just like the big banks and their corporate greed, its the cheaters, liars, and theives who ultimately, again, ruin it for the good law abiding citizens.
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