Disputing another credit card charge
A few days ago, I noticed a $14.95 U.S. charge on my American Express card. It was from the Experian website (a credit monitoring website). Well, I thought that was odd, since Canadians don’t even have access to Experian – we only use TransUnion and Equifax.
So I called tried to calling Experian first, because that’s what Amex said to do the last time I noticed a fraudulent charge on my card. But their phone numbers don’t work when calling from Canada. Awesome. (As a side note, I did tweet them, and they replied promptly – but by that time, my issue was already resolved.)
Then I called Amex. The customer service rep told me that it was set up as a recurring charge made from my supplementary card. The supplementary card that was canceled back in April. What!? I asked how that was possible, and if it had been charged to my account before. She then put me on hold to investigate.
After a few minutes, she came back and said that she wasn’t sure how that had happened. The supplementary card was definitely canceled back in April. So she transferred me to a different department to lodge a dispute on the charge. The woman I spoke to there listened to my story, saw that my supplementary card had been canceled months ago (so how did a charge go through on a canceled card?!), and immediately refunded me my money.
If you act promptly and take reasonable care to protect yourself and your billing information, you will likely get the benefit of the doubt from the credit card company. Don’t forget to make sure to keep a record of each person you talk with, along with the date and time of each call.
I’m a little wary of American Express now. I mean, I’ve had two fraudulent charges on my account so far this year – and they couldn’t even explain how this one happened. If it happens again, I might have to take drastic measures. Maybe even cancel my card and leave Amex altogether. Which is too bad, because I am in love with my Amex Blue Sky travel card.
Credit card fraud has always been something that has happened to “a friend of a friend,” and never to anyone I’ve actually known. Yet, it’s happened to me twice this year already. With the same card. So even though I know I always take the appropriate steps to protect myself – like shredding all of my receipts and statements, and only shopping online through secure websites – it really makes me more cautious. Check your statements all of the time, and don’t forget to order your free credit reports through TransUnion and Equifax, because it really can happen to anyone.
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I find that AMEX is probably the most prompt at taking care of things like this…but they might have some security issues. Three coworkers have had fraudulent charges on their Amex cards in the past month and one person has now cancelled her card TWICE because of this. These are corporate Amex cards only used for travel.
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I have been an AMEX member for many years and I agree that they are the BEST when it comes to fighting charges, even if it is a legitimate charge for something that you may have returned or whathaveyou they will immediately take it off of your bill if you call them. I wouldn't hold this against them if I were you, although perhaps you should change card numbers and start fresh in case someone has hijacked that account.
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So true. Both times I've had to call in, they've been pretty good at fixing my problem.
The last time I disputed a charge, I canceled my card and got a new one. That didn't fix it, so we'll see if it happens again with the current card.
I had a card that I had cancelled (upgraded from my Green Visa to Rebate Visa), and my pre-authorized payments still went through after I cancelled the card. Only a couple payments went through, but since the card was cancelled I stopped getting statements and the card was removed from my online account – so I had no idea I had a balance still. This was when I was still fairly new to managing my money and I never noticed. I now know that I should have fought back harder and pleaded my case, but I just paid it was done with it.
So, I'm not sure if it's true that pre-authorized payments can get through on a cancelled card.
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I was wondering if you would do a post on saving money for a downpayment on a house? How did you save so much and how long did it take you??
Sure, I can definitely do that! Will try to write it this weekend and post it for sometime next week.
Sweet. Ask and you shall receive
Both times we had fraudulent charges, it was on our CIBC Visa supplemental card (my DH's). Both times Visa was prompt in handling it.
What is scary is that my DH barely ever uses this card and the two times he did (and the card # was stolen after both incidents) were to incorporate his business and to renew his driver's license.
I think card #'s can get swiped anytime, and it really doesn't matter which company the credit card is.
I have two credit cards and have not had any unauthorized charges yet. One time i had a charge that I didnt recognize, it was legitimite i just didnt remember it and they were very great at handling that. It's great to hear that they are always so good with your problems, it gives me confidence in AMEX if it ever happens to me!
It is worrisome to see a charge go through on a supplemental charge. Not just the fact that it went through, but consider this:
What if you had no supplemental card and it was your main card that was canceled with a zero balance…would a supplemental charge still go through?
And if so, you may be less likely to notice it, because the account was closed…and the small charge could end up causing several late fees and missed payments reported to the bureaus.
On the other hand, perhaps AmEx purposely allows recurring (not new) charges through, in order to prevent the customer from losing the service the recurring charge is paying for.
It sounds like the Amex rep didn't indicate that to be their policy, however, but many reps in that field aren't fully educated in the matters or simply have a lot of policies to be aware of.
Wow, that's too bad to see a charge go through like that – especially now that it's the 2nd time within a year!
So far, my wife and I haven't had any issues like that with our cards.
Nice job on Tweeting that!
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Financial independence is living without credit cards. Debt is a bad thing… No credit cards… no fraudulent charges :-) Unfortunately, even a debt card is not safe. There are card readers cleverly attached to ATMs and gas pumps collecting your card information. Don't for get about that criminal that you gave your card to when you paid for an item or service. They just wrote down your card information and sold it to someone online. I deal with credit card fraud and abuse everyday. It is always a good idea to keep track of any account that you have to ensure your not a victim to criminal activity.
That's really weird. At least you were able to get both the charges dropped each time. Kinda makes you wonder wtf is going on sometimes. Hopefully it won't happen again. :-)
-Jen
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I know. Just goes to show you that even if you're ridiculously careful in protecting yourself, it can still happen. Really kind of scary!
Believe it or not, it can happen the opposite way as well. My credit card was at its limit when all of a sudden one month I noticed it had zero owing on it – and a payment of quite a few thousand had been applied to it.
At first I thought maybe Christmas – and Santa Claus – had arrived early. Or maybe some do-gooder out there decided to make my life easier. And then, the more I thought about it, the more realistic I got, realizing that it was likely a banking error. So….reluctantly….I called the company and told them I had not made this payment. They said they would investigate, and hung up.
(more in next comment…..)
Several months later, I noticed that the charges were all back and that I was now in arrears for not having made payments for the past few months while they investigated. I called them again and explained the situation. (Really, I should have at least been saving the regular payments in anticipation of this, but hadn't). When they were insistent that I owed the multiple minimum payments plus the service charges and penalities – which I could not afford – I reminded them that *I* had contacted *them* about the error, and not the other way around.
They took pity on me, and put me back on the regular payment schedule, and rescinded the arrears assessment.
Part of me wonder what would have happened had I not bothered to tell them about the error. Another part knows that I'm too chicken, because they would have found out for sure, and I'd have been living in hell for a while.
Seeing this story (Wolfshadeblog's) should remind us all to challenge ANY charge that appears on our cards that we don't know.
I'm currently having fun with my VISA card insurance provider and the car rental copany in the UK (had an oopsie over there and had used my VISA insurance). Two lessons came out of that: keep pushing on whoever is supposed to be providing information and escalate when things don't get resolved within a month or two (wound up being now EIGHT months and everything still ahsn't bee resolved one way or the other — dueling beaurocracies and who-does-what), and decide if the car rental insrance coverage from the credit card is worth the hassle when out of the country over that provided by the rental company.
I try to keep tabs on all the credit and debit card transactions. No fraud as yet, but I have had my debit card get cancelled twice ("cootie rule" — your card was used somewhere that a compromised card was used….)
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It's so true. Often times, we have to really push companies to do what they're supposed to do. It can be extremely frustrating (your situation sounds like a nightmare). But in the end, you have to fight for your money, because nobody else will.
I wound up writing to managing-director and the chairman of the UK firm (registered letters). Got an e-mail from one's personal assistant (or PA), and a phone call from the other's PA. The latter must have been the chairman's PA because within a week, I'd gotten three notes from the people in the Insurance section (two were status reports). Police report is being requested and will be sent to the VISA insurance people. Now have to wait for the police paperwork system to grind away for a while…..
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I recently had my first credit card fraud experience too! It seems that my cc number was stolen online (I buy from Groupon, TeamBuy, etc.) Whoever stole my number made the very stupid mistake of buying a vacation coupon from Groupon worth $700+, which is much more than I spend on that account in a month! Of course, the transaction got flagged, and VISA called me, even before I noticed the transaction.
They were very thorough: cancelling the card, sending me a new one the next day, and telling me that I wouldn't be responsible for interest rates for non-payment on the fraudulent charge (because it went past the billing period to correct the charge). I have to sign an affidavit that states that the charge was indeed fraudulent, and that is it! The experience was kind of thrilling rather than scary, because: 1) the charge was so exorbitantly silly that it was obviously not made by me 2) VISA made it such an easy and calm experience.
I'm hopeful that it won't happen again, despite the fact that I will continue to shop online. I really do wonder, though, how secure "secure sites" are, since I only shop on those sites, and still got defrauded!