Unauthorized Credit Card Charges: How to handle charges you didn’t make.
Out of my entire 10 years of credit card experience (as of this writing), I have only had 2 unauthorized charges (that means a charge in which you didn’t agree and/or make the purchase).
The first one was from a car mechanic. I had a transmission go out on an old Ford truck I owned, and it was going to cost around $350 to fix it. So I used my credit card for convenience. When my bill arrived, I had 2 separate charges for the $350. I freaked out! In this situation, I simply called and complained to the repair shop. They quickly fixed the problem, and removed the extra charge. They acknowledged that it was their fault.
They said it was an “accident” and they charged me twice because it didn’t print a receipt the first time. I honestly think that in reality they may have been trying to get a nice bonus. But I’ll never know if they were being honest or not.
The other unauthorized charge was on a card I had been sent in the mail, which I hadn’t even activated. This was very freaky to me, because this was a totally different situation from the first one. It was a charge of $9.95 on some website for downloading music. The only problem was, I never download or pay for music, and I had never activated the card (nor had my wife). So someone definitely did some fraud in this situation (thankfully it was only $10).
In this case, I immediately called the credit card company and reported and unauthorized/fraudulant charge. The website was a scam, and said it was under construction anyway (it wasn’t even a legit site). The credit card company sent me some paperwork, and I filled it out and sent it in. Thankfully, they immediately removed the charge from my account, and I never had to pay for it.
Conclusion: What to Do if You Ever Are Fraudulantly Charged
It is SO IMPORTANT to read your credit card bill monthly to ensure the charges are accurate. If you find a charge that you never made, either contact the company that charged you, or contact your credit card company immediately. You only have a limited period of time (which varies by credit cards), to report this and resolve this issue.
By scanning your bill and jumping on any inaccurate charges, you can ensure a great credit card experience.