Disputed / Fradulent Credit Card Charges

This past week has been a week of credit card mishaps. I found that I have a disputed charge on my Visa and a series of fraudulent charges on my American Express.

When I checked my Visa credit card statement, I saw that I had a disputed charge from a restaurant. At dinner, I was given and signed a credit card receipt for $17. My friend signed her $14 receipt. I don’t even know how the restaurant can put the $14 on my card when I was never even charged for it in the restaurant.

So I called my card company.  The customer representative first told me that the “proper procedure” was for me to call the restaurant and tell them to call the card company. I refused. If the restaurant can’t even be counted on to sort a simple transaction, there’s no way I’m trusting them to call the card company for their mistake.

I insisted the customer rep transfer me to the billing dispute department. Once transferred, I finally got some answers on what steps I need to take to get my charge refunded.

As for the American Express card – apparently a company in Europe has been charging my AmEx for “internet payments” for the past several weeks. So again, back to customer service I go.

Here are lessons I learned:

1. Always look over your credit card bill. In my 3+ years of having the Visa, this is the first time that something like this has happened. But if I didn’t look through my purchases carefully, I wouldn’t have discovered this issue.

2. Even if you use your card sparingly or not at all, still check your statements! The AmEx is my backup card and it has never left my house before. But it still got compromised.

3. Insist (politely) on your rights as a customer. If your current customer representative does not offer you a suitable solution, escalate the issue to the supervisor / department with the power to help you.

4. State what you’d like to be done – i.e. have the charges eliminated, freeze the card, close the account, etc. The customer representative will be more able to help you if you articulate what steps will make you a satisfied customer.

5. Keep on top of the situation – at the end of the call, repeat critical information back to the customer representative to make sure you’ve understood the process. (i.e. I will receive XYZ in the mail with ___ days. Is that correct?) Don’t assume things will get fixed without confirmation.

***Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Mighty Bargain Hunter. My post on net worth calculation is included. Thanks to MBH for hosting and for including my submission.