Credit Dispute Letters

Disputed Charges

It is important to always review your credit card statement each month to make sure the charges that appear are correct. Fraudulent charges can appear at any time, especially if you are an Internet shopper or someone who frequents restaurants. What can you do if you spot a disputed charge?

Sales Receipts

It is important to keep copies of your receipts until the charges appear on your statement. In credit disputes, it is important for both the customer and the merchant to show their receipts. This is especially true of receipts for gas station charges and restaurant charges. Restaurant charges may have an incorrect tip amount added on after you have left the restaurant and gasoline charges are sometimes duplicated. Keeping the original receipt can help your credit card issuer determine if the merchant is at fault.

(Tip: If you don’t plan to tip at a restaurant using your credit card, place a wavy line with your pen through the Tip area on your receipt.)

Speak with the Merchant

According to most credit card agreements, you must try to resolve your dispute with the merchant. While this isn’t required if you have a duplicate or an unauthorized charge, it is required for all other credit disputes. Even if the dispute isn’t resolved, you have to make a good faith effort to get the merchant to correct their error. Contact the merchant via phone and keep a record of the date, the person you spoke with and what they said. If you write a letter, keep a copy of the letter for your records.

Write a Credit Dispute Letter

After you’ve spoken to a merchant and you haven’t been able to immediately resolve a credit dispute, immediately contact the customer service department of your credit card issuer. To protect your rights, you will need to report the dispute to your credit card issuer in writing within 60 days of the date on the first billing statement with the charge you are disputing. Explaining your dispute over the phone is not enough.

Some credit card issuers can generate a dispute letter for you to give to the credit card issuer, though you will still need to sign it and attach documentation such as your receipt and correspondence you may have sent to the merchant.

Writing your own credit dispute letter is easy. Listen carefully to what your customer service representative tells you to include in the letter. Most letters need to have the following information:

• The date of the transaction and the transaction number from your statement
• The name of the merchant
• The address of where the transaction happened
• The amount of the disputed charge- whether it is the entire amount or part of the total amount
• Why you think the charge is an error (wrong tip amount, duplicate charge, unauthorized charge, etc.)
• What you have done to resolve the dispute with the merchant
• Be sure to put a date on this letter actually sign your letter, not just type your name at the end of the letter

Mail the letter and any documentation back to the card issuer with a signed receipt requested to prove the date you mailed the documentation.

Follow Up Inquiries

Always follow up your letter with a phone call to your credit card company at least two weeks after you mail the letter to them. Occasionally correspondence gets lost in the mail, and it can delay the resolution of your dispute. Your credit card issuer has thirty days to respond back to you that they have received your documentation. According to federal law credit card disputes have to be resolved by the card issuer within two billing cycles (or 90 days) after they receive your dispute letter.

If your credit card company contacts you for additional information, be sure to respond quickly. Usually the additional information can be given over the phone or faxed once they have your original dispute letter with a valid signature.

Dispute Resolution

While you are disputing a charge, you do not have to pay that portion of your bill. However, you are responsible for paying any other charges that appear on your statement. Some credit card companies may even place a temporary credit on your account while the disputed charge is being researched.

Disputes that are resolved in your favor will be credited to your account, according to your credit card company’s policy. This may occur within one billing cycle of the dispute being resolved.