How To Handle Unauthorized Purchases and Billing Errors

Every so often unauthorized charges or billing errors will show up on your statement. Your first line of attack is to notify the creditor within 60 days of the discrepancies and this should be done in writing. It's not uncommon for you to receive an error or two on your credit card statement. Sometimes information is keyed in erroneously and some times it can be a legitimate case of fraud.

Always report any type of errors or discrepancies including payments which have been credited in the wrong amount. If you purchase defective purchase this should be reported as well. Doing so within the 60 day limit helps to preserve your rights according to what is outlined by the credit card company within the context of your terms and agreements.

Once you have reported any errors your credit card company has approximately 30 days to respond to the items that you have reported. From this point in time the credit card company will then have 90 days to resolve the entire matter. While these charges are being investigated you can continue to use your credit cards to make other purchases. If it turns out that the credit card company does not respond to your inquiry they cannot collect on the disputed amount nor can they report your account as delinquent to the credit bureau.

Credit card companies are normally very efficient when it comes to responding to these types of allegations. When you receive your credit card statements always take a few minutes to review all of the charges, payments, interest rate and any other information that is pertinent to your account. Some people will receive the statements and hardly give them a second look.

There have been instances where consumers were charged a fee of $69.99 for some type of credit protection. It turns out they were receiving this charge for a period of 3 years and they did not realize it. Unfortunately when they discovered the charge and tried to dispute it they were only successful in disputing the last couple of charges because of the time frame involved. Over a period of 3 three years the customer was charged a total of $2519.64. After successfully disputing two of the charges the customer actually paid $2,379.66 unnecessarily. This is money that could have gone into a checking account or saving account. Always check your statements because no one has that kind of money to spare especially during these tough economic times.