dennis0009

Hello guys!

Please give me your advice, what to do?

Amount of USD 113.88 debited on 6th April 2014 from my visa card. I asked the bank but did not get the reply! where to check? i've heard about vcharges, but don't know. do you have any experience? Thanks in advance

joto

Call the number on the back of your card and ask what the charge was for and where it was from.

md95065

Call the number on your credit card immediately.

Tell them that you do not recognize the charge and ask for details.
If the charge was not legitimate they will usually send you a form so that you can dispute the charge in writing.
Also verify all other charges on that account.
If in any doubt ask them to give you a new card with a new number.

You don't need to remember any of that apart from "call the number on the card immediately" - this is all standard stuff for a credit card company and they will walk you through all of it.

robin1234

Hmm .. What do you mean by you asked the bank but did not get a reply? There was silence at the other end of the phone?

durham_lad

+1

At a minimum they should give you details of the charge you are questioning.

I've had this a few times and if it is a reputable outfit that the charge is to the bank may well give you the customer service number and ask you to first dispute the charge with them. One time for me it was 5 small charges from Amazon.com, all just under $10, and the bank had me call Amazon first to confirm that they were fraudulent charges, then they refunded the charges. (Turned out someone had created a new Amazon account using my credit card details, and Amazon don't even bother to send the card holder an email to inform this has happened).

Michael

Is this your bank visa/debit card or just a visa card? If it is just a visa card or a visa/debit card and an unauthorized amount was charged, it is almost 100% certain that the bank will reverse the charges and issue a new card.

However if it was a visa/debit card and that amount was debited and not charged, there is not as much protection on debit transactions since the user has to know the pin but you'll probably still be ok if you can prove your case.

Often if there is only one charge/debit in dispute, the charge appears in your account under a name that you don't recognize but was actually a charge/debit you made. This has happened to me several times.

I've had unauthorized charges twice over the past 10 years and both times the charges were reversed without a hassle and a new card was issued.

Pulaski

Agreed. In twelve years I've had three unauthorized debits: two debit card charges to my chequing account (after which I cancelled my debit card because I had never used it as such; I insisted that my bank issue me with an ATM card instead, which I have to this day.

Recently my credit card bank phone me a few hours after a charge to my credit card that somehow they had flagged as being out of usual for me. My credit card account was closed and reopened with a different number. All three debits were reversed immediately and without question.

Of the three fraudulent charges, one was a $100+ charge at a 7/11 (I suspect it was the size of the charge at a convenience store alerted the transaction), another was a satellite TV subscription, which seemed to me to be a particularly odd type of fraudulent charge given that it could be traced to a specific address.

robin1234

I wonder if a proportion of these transactions are just mistakes, rather than fraudulent charges. For instance the TV subscription, maybe just debited to an incorrect account ...?

I'm bad, I never reconcile my charges carefully, just eyeball them to see if anything jumps out. A couple of people have told me that a small proportion of charges never show up, get lost in the system somehow. I'd never see that since I don't look for each charge.

Pulaski

You may be right, though given that virtually all transactions are fully automated, and credit/ debit cards are all (Amex excepted) 15 digits plus a check digit, such that there is necessarily a minimum of TWO digits difference between any two credit cards, I find the "error" explanation harder to believe than the "fraud" one.

I used to check every single transaction on my credit card statement, and I found that a small number disappeared, though that was back when credit card purchases were processed using the old "roller skate" contraption.

I do make a point of looking at the small transactions on my credit card statement as that is where a lot of the fraud is committed, around the $10 mark. A neighbor had such a charge, ostensibly from a website supplier of sports and outdoor equipment, which he asked me about knowing I am more web-savvy than him. The web site certainly existed, with a variety of products listed, but many were suspiciously cheap; none exceeded $20. The business claimed to be in Florida, but the website was housed on a server in the south of Russia!

scrubbedexpat091

Call the bank, sounds like you may have emailed, and email is not a good method of contact when dealing with potential fraud, always call.

I've had fraud charges on my Visa debit card, and the bank just treated it like a credit card, since Chase doesn't require a PIN # to use it at point of sale only at the ATM is a pin required, so the protections appear to have been basically the same as a credit card.

Took about a month and a half to get the final decision, but in the meantime they credited the account so no harm done on my end, just a 10 minute phone call, and some papers to sign and fax back.

If you wait to long to report however, you might get stuck with the charge, so call ASAP.

Michael

The person who used your debit card used it as a credit card. Since he didn't enter a pin, it goes through the VISA network so therefore it has the same protection as any credit card. However if he used it as a debit card (some POS terminals allow you to select either) and entered a pin, the transaction then goes through a debit card network and there is less consumer protection.

All debit cards can be used as either a credit card or a debit card but both just debit your account for the transaction. ATM cards can only use a debit card network and always require a pin.

Banks much prefer that debit cards be used as credit cards since merchant fees are higher than when using it as a debit card.