Credit Card Chargeback

I'm currently living in Germany. I ordered something from ebay and had it shipped from the USA...she said she sent it 3 weeks ago, but I still haven't gotten anything, and I've been sent packages in as little as a week. I'm thinking about doing a chargeback with my credit card company because it might have been stolen by a postal employee.

Should I wait a little longer or do it now? What is the deadline for doing a chargeback?

You should do it now don't wait longer or your time will be up and lose money .

When things go wrong, learn what you need to know to preserve your rights by properly disputing a charge on your credit card.

I've worked for two of the five largest credit card issuers in the world for the past 9 years. I'm familiar with the way they handle disputes. From the other side, I've initiated disputes on 3 of my own credit card accounts, all with different issuers. This is an overview of what you need to know about disputes: how to stay within the law and how to get the results you want. Plus some personal experience thrown in for good measure.

What is a Dispute?

The Federal Regulations that govern disputes are Reg Z, also known as the Truth in Lending Act and the Fair Credit Billing Act. These regulations provide certain rights and responsibilities regarding disputes. In credit terms, a "dispute" is not an argument, it's a legal term signifying your official disagreement with an item on, or missing from, your credit card bill.

What are some common reasons for a Dispute?

The most common is that a cardholder sees a charge on their monthly statement that they do not remember making. Other billing errors are fair game as well, such as mathematical errors, misposted debits or credits, nonposted debits or credits, double posted debits or credits, and the failure of the creditor to send statements to your correct address. Disputes can also be initiated (under certain circumstances) because the merchant did not deliver the goods or services that were bargained for and will not give a refund.

Your Responsibilities

• Must be Within the Time Frame

To take advantage of the protection offered by these regulations, you MUST be sure your letter is received by the Creditor not more than 60 days after they mailed the bill on which the disputed item appears. Make sure you mail your letter well in advance of this deadline. Be sure to send your letter certified return receipt requested so that you have proof of this fact.

• Must be in Writing

You also need to fully describe the situation and why you are disputing the charge. You are not obligated to wait for an official dispute form from your credit card company. Go ahead and write the letter yourself to get the ball rolling. Keep in mind that phone calls, emails, and faxes will not preserve your rights, only snail mail will do the trick. Once the creditor receives your letter, the dispute investigation will begin.

An important point to mention here is that the billing address is not the address to which you should send this letter. Look on your statement. The creditor must tell you the address to which you should send any billing inquiries. It is imperative that you use the billing inquiry address.

Your Rights

• Once the Creditor receives your letter, they must respond within 30 days.

• The creditor may not negatively impact your credit due to the disputed item. Once an item is in dispute, you do not have to pay that amount, or any finance charges that are accruing on that amount, until the dispute is settled.

• Although the amount in dispute will be counted against your credit line, you do not have to pay it while it's in dispute.

• The Creditor may not take adverse action against you because of the dispute by restricting or closing your account.

• The Creditor must report their findings to you not more than 90 days after receiving your notice of a dispute. The three main outcomes are:

- You lose: the Creditor will prove why the bill is correct. You will owe the original amount plus any accrued finance charges.

- You win: the Creditor will remove the disputed item from your account. You will not owe any finance charges and any late fees relating to the amount in dispute must be removed. The amount in dispute becomes a "chargeback" on the merchant's account.

- A Compromise: the Creditor has found some merit in the dispute, but for a lesser amount. You will owe the partial amount, along with any accrued finance charges allocated to that amount

2008-06-23 22:48:02 by anonymous

www.trustwho.com - Ever get a chargeback through PayPal? Tips to avoid this fee and also save money.

Over years of running a small business, I've learned the police like to ignore small business when it comes to anything other than outright retail theft.

However, I've recently gone to a credit/cash only payment system to avoid bad checks. Recently, a customer bought products and service from my company and hit me with a credit card chargeback. Just wondering if the police would help me recover the goods that are essentially now stolen and NOT paid for?

nope.

but here is a resource site
http://www.badcustomer.com/business-cent er.htm?gclid=CMj0iI3ni50CFZJM5Qodhlg_3A

2009-09-24 20:12:08 by Amanda J

Price: $13.95

I sell reel to reel recorders on E-Bay and had a credit card chargeback and they froze my account for the amount of sale! the item was damaged in shipping and even tho it was insured, the buyer without contacting me gave me a negative feedback and filed a chargeback! I notified Pay-Pal and E-Bay on the situation! Now there is a waiting game for 30 to 60 days while your money is tied up and the credit card company always wins! The person also sent unit back to me without letting me know he was doing so! Now I am stuck with a damaged unit that left my shop in perfect condition and out $300.00 on top of it! So where is the seller protection that they promise? I can be contacted thru E-Bay under REEL TECHNOLOGIES look for my auctions if anybody would like to communicate! The negative feedback was unjust and people look at that when they buy from you it can really damage your reputation and sales!
The attorney general will not do anything to a multi-million dollar company like E-Bay for a $500.00 issue!

I would file a claim with the post office for mail fraud. If you had insurance on the item, the act of the buyer mailing the item back to you may have voided the insurance.

2007-09-02 04:09:25 by mkdenton1943

I'm thinking about starting a business, but I'm worried about credit card chargebacks ruining my profit. Is there any protection from chargebacks i.e. insurance or is it pretty much part of running a business?? Thanks

No legit business that provides a product or service that their customers need/want will have a "lot" of charge backs.

To help avoid them, have your customers swipe their card -- this increases the likelihood that the card (and cardholder) were present. If you take online orders, make the CVV or CVN (the three digit security code on the back) a required field in your shopping cart. This is generally not required to process the payment, but greatly helps in defending yourself against charge backs.

Should you have lots of charge backs, you will likely have trouble getting a merchant account (or keeping one). Here's why:

When a charge is made on a card, the company that provides you a merchant account is usually the one that actually gives you the money that day or the next day. That company then sells that "paper" or "ticket" to Visa/MasterCard whoever puts their logo on that card and they charge the customer at the end of the month. Sometimes there is a bank or other issuer in there that will buy the "paper" from Visa/Mastercard.

The problem comes when you get charge backs, the contract the company that provided you with a merchant account signed to be able to process those cards for you (and earn a little fee for themselves in the process) says that they agree to purchase any chargebacks (that can't be proven to actually have been the cardholder). The presumption of innocence is on the cardholder...not you the company that charged the card. If you raise the "fraud" rates of the company that provided you with the merchant account, you are a risk and liability to them because they are buying your "tickets" when you make a charge on a card.

You can go with offshore processors that couldn't care less how many chargebacks you get. They usually do the processing for the adult entertainment industries (where there are a lot of charge backs...imagine that...) but they want 27% - 30% or more with a monthly minimum to them. It's extremely expensive to do that...but it can be done.

Good luck.

2009-02-02 15:36:34 by J Man

Good day. I'll be doing some online business like selling membership. So there's no physical objects exchanged between me and my customers. What can possibly cause credit card chargeback? I heard that many are exploiting this system. Just in case it happens, do you recommend joining third party chargeback recovery service?

As long as they are using a credit card you are at risk for a charge back. The only thing you may do is go through Paypal which guarantees exemption from certain charge-backs (not sure if there is a limit to this or not) or find some way to get people to pay with debit cards which cannot be charged back.

Cheers

2006-12-23 22:04:00 by jlryan87