What would you do if you find out that you are billed those purchases which you haven’t made? What if you rarely made any transaction and were billed for couple of transactions by the end of the month? You are shocked to see the transactions of branded stores like Ralph Lauren and Burberry, where you haven’t been for a while.

Most people are hit by such incidents and unaware of their rights and don’t know what to do, where to report or how to react. Do you have any idea of what rights you possess in-case your credit card is misused or If you’ve made any purchases online and never received the purchased items?

If you have not come across such incidents, then you can call yourself lucky.  These are common situations credit card consumers face day to day, and it can help you to understand and react before something similar happens to you what your rights are, and what your responsibilities are in the matter.

When Your Purchase Is Unsatisfactory

A very unique benefit of using credit card to make purchases is the supplementary protection it can provide, if you make a purchase that you are unsatisfied with.  For example, maybe you used a credit card to pay the contractors who were hired to repair your gas leakage in your kitchen, but there is still some leakage.  Obviously, you are not satisfied with the work they did, and you’re not willing to pay for it.  The problem is that your mode of payment was credit card and now you are billed.

Your 1st Step.

Contact the merchant you made your purchase from or the contractors. Most of the time, the merchant is more than happy to replace a defected item, carry out the required task again or refund the purchase back to your credit card.

If The 1st Step Fails.

If you make a phone call, document it and follow up with a letter to cover your tracks in the event and the merchant doesn’t follow through.
For instance, the merchant decides that they are not going to revert your credit card payment or not going to take an action, then you should immediately contact your credit card company and report the matter. You should not wait to report the problem on a later date – most credit card companies want you to report a problem as soon as you receive it on the statement, in order to benefit from any of the protection they provide.

Transactions You Didn’t Make

Did you know that the federal law protects you (credit card owner) to a certain limit on charges that you did not make on your own credit card? The Fair Credit Billing Act actually limits the holder’s responsibility to merely $50 for any charges you did not approve.  If for instance, you open your credit card bill and are shocked to find charges not made by you then there is a procedure you should follow to get it resolved as quickly as possible.
As soon as you are in such a situation, call the credit card company and explain that the charges were not made by you.  They will instruct you as per their own policy.

Review All Your Statements

Take out time and review all of your recent credit card statements, in case there were other charges that you may have overseen.

Complete the documentation

Your credit card company will probably ask you to sign a form to confirm that you were not the one who made the transactions. Remember NOT to use your credit card, while you are disputing charges.

Check Your Credit Report

Once you finally get the charges removed, make sure that your record has been updated in all major credit bureaus by ordering your credit report (from major credit bureaus) – because chances are that the time it took you to resolve fraudulent charges might have caused delay in payments on that credit card, which may have been reported.

You can also get more information about credit card issues from the Fair Trade Commission.

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