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Credit Cards & Chargebacks: What You Need To Know
Your credit card is stolen. You place a phone call to the number provided in your tourist guide or in the local daily press. You provide your details and you cancel your card. You block it. In a few minutes, it should be transferred to the stop-list available to the authorization centres worldwide. From that moment on, no thief will be able to fraudulently use your card. You can sigh in relief. The danger is over.
But is it?
It is definitely not. To understand why, we should first review the intricate procedure involved.
In principle, the best and safest thing to do is call the authorization centre of the bank that issued your card (the issuer bank). Calling the number published in the media is second best because it connects the cardholder to a "volunteer" bank, which caters for the needs of all the issuers of a given card. Some service organizations (such as IAPA - the International Air Passengers Association) provide a similar service.
The "catering bank" accepts the call, notes down the details of the cardholder and prepares a fax containing the instruction to cancel the card. The cancellation fax is then sent on to the issuing bank. The details of all the issuing banks are found in special manuals published by the clearing and payments associations of all the banks that issue a specific card. All the financial institutions that issue Mastercards, Eurocards and a few other more minor cards in Europe are members of Europay International (EPI).
Here lies the first snag: the catering bank often mistakes the identity of the issuer. Many banks share the same name or are branches of a network. Banks with identical names can exist in Prague, Budapest and Frankfurt, or Vienna, for instance. Should a fax cancelling the card be sent to the wrong bank - the card will simply not be cancelled until it is too late. By the time the mistake is discovered, the card is usually thoroughly abused and the financial means of the cardholder are exhausted.
To be considered a chargeback, the card issuer must initiate a well-defined dispute procedure. This it can do only after it has determined the reasons invalidating the transaction. A chrageback can only be initiated by the issuing financial institution. The cardholder himself has no standing in this matter and the chargeback rules and regulations are not accessible to him.
He is confined to lodging a complaint with the issuer. This is an abnormal situation whereby rules affecting the balances and mandating operations resulting in debits and credits in the bank account are not available to the account name (owner). The issuer, at its discretion, may decide that issuing a chargeback is the best way to rectify the complaint.
The following sequence of events is, thus, fairly common:
The cardholder presents his card to a merchant (aka: an acceptor of payment system cards). The merchant may request an authorization for the transaction, either by electronic means (a Point of Sale / Electronic Fund Transfer apparatus) or by phone (voice authorization). A merchant is obliged to do so if the value of the transaction exceeds predefined thresholds. But there are other cases in which this might be either a required or a recommended policy.
Periodically, the merchant collects all the transaction vouchers and sends them to his bank (the "acquiring" bank). The acquiring bank pays the merchant on foot of the transaction vouchers minus the commission payable to the credit card company. Some banks pre-finance or re-finance credit card sales vouchers in the form of credit lines (cash flow or receivables financing).
The acquiring bank sends the transaction to the payments system (VISA International or Europay International) through its connection to the relevant network (VisaNet, in the case of Visa, for instance). The credit card company (Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club) credits the acquirer bank. The credit card company sends the transaction to the issuing bank and automatically debits the issuer.
The issuing bank debits the cardholder's account. It issues monthly or transaction related statements to the cardholder. The cardholder pays the issuing bank on foot of the statement (this is automatic, involuntary debiting of the cardholders account with the bank). Some credit card companies in some territories prefer to work directly with the cardholders. In such a case, they issue a monthly statement, which the cardholder has to pay directly to them by money order or by bank transfer.
The cardholder will be required to provide a security to the credit card company and his spending limits will be tightly related to the level and quality of the security provided by him. The very issuance of the card is almost always subject to credit history and to an approval process.
The rewards credit card is one of the most famous types of credit cards that is offered by multifarious companies around the globe to attract more and more clients.
The Online Lenders Alliance (OLA) is an organization representing the growing industry of U.S. based companies offering online consumer short-term loans, also known as payday loans. The OLA released the following statement. Thoughts, comments and identification of companies you know conducting this type of activity are welcome. Details on how to do this are below.
The February 2010 deadline is looming for credit card issuers to implement consumer friendly procedures contained in the Obama administration's new law. In these final months leading up to the implementation, banks are squeezing out their creative juices to design new fees to help make up for projected shortfalls in revenue caused by the new law.
Has the current state of the economy dragged you down? If it has, you are certainly not by yourself. Many other consumers are finding it more and more of a challenge to keep up with their financial obligations, even their house payments. Increasing debt results in a great deal of stress, which can hurt your well being, even make you sick.
Credit cards are a special financial tool that must complement their holder's monetary requirements to actually work for them. Take some time to investigate and ascertain what offers and advantages would work best for you monetarily. Like, if you take a balance each month then you obviously are required to find a card that has a low interest rate.
Following that you might secure a better card with better rates and better rewards. Nonetheless, when you pursue this method, make sure that you're in a position to properly handle your credit card use to continue being punctual with your transactions and avert any unnecessary expenses like late charges, over limit fees, and so on.
Many financial consumers have learned about the secret about purchasing their credit scores. It is actually a dirty secret because the credit bureaus that sell these scores do not have to clearly disclose to you the facts about the scores you are buying. Let us tell you why your credit score just got more confusing: The scores you buy are not the scores used by lenders.
The only thing you should execute is to complete their applications online on the internet and await for the reply often by your e-mail or using postal mail. Strive to be safe in selecting a credit card with rewards and aim to gain low rate of interest if feasible. Moreover, notice what other fees they will bill for just in case. Be smart in selecting your credit card.
New television ads about purchasing your credit score have replaced the infamous garage band in the pirate costumes. A recent ad for a company owned by Experian teaches kids and parents the effects of cosigning for a credit card. Financial consumers have learned the hard way about the dangers of cosigning for student credit cards. Now this topic is hitting the mainstream airways.
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