Third time not quite the charm

[afuna]

Oh dear.

Apparently my credit card was charged thrice for the same transaction, pushing me over my credit limit. It was an honest mistake -- I was there when they swiped the card, and the system was being unresponsive, so they re-swiped, thinking that something had gone wrong *g* And the third time was because they asked over someone with more experience with the credit card machine. (I paid cash in the end).

I was a bit more amused back when I thought that this would be cancelled with a couple of phone calls and over within a couple of days at most; apparently it will take a letter and at least three weeks (at most a month). *wrinkles nose*

(The merchant is taking care of writing the letter; I just need to wait and pay for it when my credit card bill comes, and then wait for the charge to be debited afterwards)

I'm not at any risk, just inconvenienced! And well, I guess I've now learned something about how all this works.

Comments

[shinsetsu]

Pay for a thrice billed mistake that you have already paid for with cash? That does NOT sound right. D:

[afuna]

It isn't! I'll get the money back, though, just... it might take some time x_x

[shinsetsu]

I don't know what kind of credit card that is, but I don't think my Visa or MC would do that. I know I wouldn't pay it anyway--just what I owed, and I would send them a letter of dispute. If I am not mistaken, the fact that the company is sending the letter and telling them the amount that they mistakenly billed you means that amount is in dispute and therefore you don't have to pay until it has been settled--which of course means never because they will see the mistake. That's absurd. D: I hate banks and credit card companies. Vultures!!

[tyggerjai]

Yeah, that's my understanding with Mastercard - if someone charges me for something I didn't get, I dispute the charge, and don't pay. Then they take it up with the merchant.

[ninetydegrees]

I don't know how it works in Afuna's country but in mine you can choose to have your account debited every time you use your card or have everything debited once a month. Both types of cards are called "credit cards".

[tyggerjai]

If it's being debited out of actual money you have, isn't it a debit account? If it's being added to what you owe the bank, then I've never seen the "debited once a month" - except auto payments of interest or balance from a savings account.

Either way, if it's a credit card, then it's being added to what I owe the bank, not debited from my money, and certainly in Australia, the response to the bank saying "You owe for this transaction", if it's a faulty transaction, is "No I don't, please take it up with the merchant."

But as you say, different countries may have different rules.

[ninetydegrees]

In my country you use credit cards to pay for things by withdrawing money from your bank account. As I said, either the money is withdrawn immediately (which is actually one or two days later) or once a month. I think we call them credit cards because it's like the bank pays for you till the transaction is processed.
We can also use store cards which work as credit cards: they allow you to buy things and pay them back in monthly fees (with interest usually but not always).

[tyggerjai]

Interesting. I'd call that a debit card, if it comes out of money I have in a savings account. I've only ever heard of a credit card as racking up a bill that you then owe the bank (with interest), and you can pay off a certain amount each month.

Which country are you in?

[ninetydegrees]

I live in France.

Oh, we don't pay any interest when paying with bank credit cards, just a yearly fee (very small for basic Visa cards, higher for AmExs, MasterCards or Visas with more leeway). I don't think the sort of cards you mention are allowed as anything but store cards.

It's my understanding that the point of our system is to prevent debt as much as possible.

[afuna]

Hmmm, do you always owe interest? Here we only owe interest if you haven't paid off your bill before the cutoff date. That plus annual fee.

I pay off in full every month, so I haven't paid for interest at all.

[tyggerjai]

Ah. MY wife points out that this may also be a generational thing. I remember when debit cards were first introduced, and many stores wouldn't take them. These days, it's more common for debit cards to be offered by credit card companies, and accepted by merchants just as if they were credit cards, but, as you say, taking the money out of your account. So it might be more common these days to refer to those as credit cards, because they don't have the issues debit cards used to have, when debit cards were a bank thing rather than a credit card company thing.

[ninetydegrees]

Here it works the opposite way. You can use what you call debit cards everywhere but you can't do so with what you call credit cards.

[dreamatdrew]

TEENSY technicality, based upon USA useage.
Modern day it-acts-like-a-credit-card-but-works-like-a-debit-cards are not handled at the Point-Of-Sale as a Debit card. They say so, but they lie, and I've seen the code-guts of a register to prove it.
What you're referring to as a debit card here (at least, if I am reading things correctly) is actually a credit card with an instant billing cycle, and referred to locally as a check card. A true debit card is nowhere near as universally accepted, and is directly tied to the bank, as in "Must Verify With Bank Before Processing". A check card, if the server is unable to contact the bank, works with it's last-known-good data, which is why you can get an overdraft even if you have a block on such things on your account.

[tyggerjai]

That sounds about right. What I would call a debit card is your "true debit card", kids today use debit card to refer to "credit card with instant billing cycle" or check card. And the check card would be one of the things ninetydegrees refers to above as a credit card, which makes sense.

[afuna]

I called my credit card and they said the merchant could cancel it by contacting the bank, but when the merchant called the bank, the bank said it would take like 3-4 weeks to process :(

I agree about banks being vultures! I don't mind at all paying for what I've bought, but paying for someone else's mistake (even temporarily) isn't as cool.

[ironed_orchid]

I process credit card transactions at point of sale at my work, and I'm able to print a report of of the total amount received from any credit card provider, e.g amex, visa, etc. at any given time during the day.

If I have a situation like you describe, I do this and check it against what my cash register report says the total should be.

In a store with lots of checkouts, individual staff might not be able to do this themselves, but there is nearly always a way to check it if you have the time to wait around.

[afuna]

Oh interesting. This was a tiny tiny store though, and all they had was one of those small card-swipe machines; I don't know if they'd have the same capability.

The merchant and I do agree that I'm being charged unfairly *G* It's trying to get the bank to reverse it that's being more tricky (and it will eventually be done, just... probably going to take a while).

[pinesandmaples]

That's annoying.

[juin]

Hello! ♥

[afuna]

Hi hi ♥

[juin]

Is there anything you'd like (from Australia) for Christmas? :D

[afuna]

All I want for Christmas is you

Hmmm. Candy? *G*

[juin]

*smooches*

Mmkay!

[afuna]

(Psst is there anything you want? <3)

[juin]

(Hmm... I wouldn't mind some candy myself. :D)

[afuna]

Mmm, candy.