Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Be careful with your credit cards!

(1/5) > >>

Carol Haynes:
I just renewed my subscription to an American magazine using a special offer couple and filled in my credit card details. The offer said the three year subscription rate was £59 charged in pounds sterling but when I got my credit card statement it says they charged me $119 US (which translates as £73.85).

I contacted my card company (HSBC) to report an unauthorised transaction only to be told that they couldn't do anything about it unless the magazine provide written evidence that they charged the wrong amount and refuse to do anything about it.

OK £14.85 isn't a huge loss but there is a wider issue here ...

If you give your credit card details out over the telephone, internet or in a written instruction (i.e. any transaction completed without you present to check the details and enter a pin code) the seller can charge you for any amount they like and it is up to you to get them to provide written evidence that they committed fraud before you have any protection via your card company.

Be warned - if you give your card details you may suddenly find yourself financing someone's trip to the Bahamas and unless they admit they did wrong you will have to bear the loss!!!

Apparently in the crazy credit world fraud pays!

nudone:
oh dear. sorry for your loss, but thanks for letting us know. very easy for us lot to use credit cards online without ever giving it a moments thought.

potential for some new scams there perhaps - create a company, sell online, charge your foreign buyers twice (or more) the published charge. it's obviously a perfectly legimate way of doing business these days.

tomos:
that's very scary - and a bit surreal - someone has write that they ripped you off and then say write more or less 'so there'
did you contact the magazine to ask for a refund?

40hz:
Miserable thing to have happen. :(

I think a lot of to has to do with HSBC's internal policies. I've run into similar billing issues, but I've never had a problem getting it straightened as long as I used Amex. Ditto for my MasterCard through a major US bank. A phone call (on one occasion two) was all it took to get the purchase canceled.

Didn't stop one magazine from trying to put me into collection since they continued to send me their magazine no matter how many times (via phone, letter, and registered letter) I told them to cancel the subscription. But that was hardly MasterCard's fault. (I won that one too BTW.)

I'm guessing the UK doesn't have much in the way of consumer protection laws that cover disputed credit card purchases?

iphigenie:
I would push a bit on the HSBC side - that doesn't seem logical on their part, and it might be the person you spoke to didnt quite understand?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page