Remember To Check Your Credit Card Statments

[Wish Upon A Star]

I never really give it much thought that something could be on my statement that I didn't put there . . .but this month when I received my credit card statement there was an $80 charge for something that I didn't know about.

I called the credit card company and they told me it was a program through them that I accepted . . .I told the woman I never accepted anything and when she looked she couldn't find anything on my record that I agreed to this service.

She then instructed me to call the 800# because although it was a program through my credit card, another company actually ran it? So I called and got this RUDE man who tried to convince me that I was called on 12/23 and offered this service and I accepted it verbally . . .I told him, "no, I didn't" he said "it states you did" and I got pretty upset and said "that's an outright lie" First of all, I would of never accepted a charge on my account for $80 for this service I would not even use . . .and I know that I never received a phone call . . .especially on 12/23 since I was home all day long.

I asked him to remove the charge and he said it will take 1 or 2 statements to credit me . . .Sooooooo the moral is . . .please remember to check your statements . . .this probably happens all the time.

 

[Helopoh]

Be thankful you caught it. You won't believe how many people I know that just pay there bills without looking at there statements. My Landlord is the worst. She paid our phone Bill one month. She never looked at the name on the bill but just wrote a check and paid it. We gave her the money with the next months rent but she was not happy about her mistake. What are you gonna do?

 

[thinkerbell]

Our credit card was charged twice in one month for something someone else did- totaled $180. It was for something on-line that wasn't so nice. We knew it wasn't ours and when we called they did a little investigating and found out that it was charged by a man that lives all the way across the country. Turns out it was an honest mistake on his part. His credit card number was very similar to ours. The scary part was that the person on the other end of the phone gave us his name, phone number, and address. I'm not sure why she thought we needed it as long as they were taking the charges off. I surely wouldn't want my name , phone, and address given to some stranger just because of an honest mistake.

 

[MarkRG]

If the 'not so nice' is what I think it is, if police ever show up asking why you charged to that website you could point out to them who actually did. That would be the more scary part to me.

 

[Jeafl]

My husband (the CPA ) goes through our statement every month with a fine-tooth comb. He gathers all the charge receipts and compares them to the statement. I can't tell you how many mistakes he catches and NONE of them have ever been in our favor. One month I had a $15 fill in for my nails at a salon, and the charge went through 4 times! The salon insisted that it was correct. I asked them to explain why I would have 4 fill-ins on one day .

I can't believe that people actually pay their bills blindly.

 

[Towncrier]

Sounds like the time that I had problems with the Orbitz website and I ended up with 3 sets of 4 roundtrip plane tickets from Cleveland to Orlando on the same day!!!

In my case, however, Orbitz caught the error and it only took a month to clear up the majority of the overcharge. I am ashamed to admit that I didn't catch the overcharge until the following month when they credited my account for nearly $1000.

 

[nativetxn]

My husband checks all of our statements. This is excellent advice. How aggravating that it could take <b>two</b> billing cycles to get it cleared up. I'll bet it didn't take more than a day to be charged to you.

Sneaky people just make me so angry and this sounds like someone was being sneaky getting a commission they hadn't earned

Katholyn

 

[mhopset]

If you carry a balance make sure you get your interest back too. They may credit your account, but forget to give you back the interest that was charged on that $80

 

[RUDisney]

I check every cc statement. I have found many, many errors. For a while, my normal grocery store would process 2 transactions. I attribute this to the teenaged cashiers that they have. I don't think they know better and process an item a second time if it seems to take too long.

I have found waiters/waitresses who have bumped up the amount of their tip after the transaction. Not by much, usually, but if they do this on every cc transaction, they could make a bunch of money. The most was $10 more from a restaurant in New Orleans. I guess they figure that tourists are stupid and don't keep their receipts.

I called my cc company during the last 3 months of last year because there were things on it that I didn't recognize. Each one of them turned out to be my DH's purchase for which he didn't turn in his receipt in to me. I don't care what he spends or what he buys, I just want them so I can match everything up when the bill comes.

 

[Tina]

Last year I was ripped off by 2 restaurants in the same month. In one case, the waiter added a '1' in front of the '5' on his tip, giving himself a $15 tip on a $20 bill! I caught it and called the restaurant. They looked up the receipts and saw it on their copy as well. They had me stop by for a refund of the overcharge. Here's the part that really bothered me - we went in there to eat about a week later and that same waiter was still working there! We couldn't believe it! DH insisted that the manager run our card through the machine personally, rather than the waiter.

In the other case, we had gone to a nearby restaurant with another couple. We paid with our credit card, the other couple paid cash. When I checked our statement a month later, I discovered that the waitress had charged both bills to our card and pocketed the other couple's cash (over $100). Unfortunately, the waitress did not know we were "regulars" at that restaurant and knew the owner well. We went in that evening for dinner and explained to him what happened. He was furious. He had already fired the girl earlier that week, but she was expected to stop by that evening for her last paycheck. He told us she was not getting a paycheck and we were getting a free dinner!!

Its always a good idea to compare your receipts to your statement.

 

[Spinning]

I am having problems with Kolh's. I paid my bill in full and they said they never rec'd it. I did it electronically through my bank. The money has been taken out of my account. I called my bank they checked and yes Kohl's did receive it and cashed. So Now I am waiting to hear the end results. Plus I now have finance charges and interest late fees....all of that. I expect it to be all taken off.

 

[jsmith]

On thing to really watch for-almost all resturants run credit card charges like this-when you give them the card to pay your bill they automatically run the card for the amount of the bill plus 20 or 25% for the tip-this freezes the funds from your account for 3 days or until the actually transaction clears. When you add the tip to your slip and sign the bill, the amount you indicate is the amount the actual transaction should be charged to your account for. However, they frequently "forget" to change the amount to the amount of the actual transaction. I discovered that this happens when we took our DS and his girlfriend to a very upscale place to celebrate his birthday. The bill was quite large and since we were a party of 5, they added an 18% gratuity to the bill-but when they ran my card, apparently thought I was going to tip the guy 45%. I was using a Visa debit, which gets treated like a CC.
Three checks bounced while the funds were frozen waiting for the actual transaction to clear ( the additional amount that had been added for tip was well over $100). Lesson learned-we love the place and will go back but only pay cash-never debit or credit card-thank goodness I review my statements on line weekly!

 

[Cindy B]

Hmm.. I guess this is why we don't have credit cards anymore.

DH only has his "work" one, and he checks that with a fine tooth comb.

 

[tar heel]

I had exactly the same thing to happen to me as happened to Wish Upon a Star and it took at least six months and many phone calls and letters to clear up. I hope your problem was not with First USA.

 

[Cinders]

Same goes for checking your phone bills. AT&T charged me over $9 for a call from a website that I did not visit. I dont even use AT&T long distance! When I called to get it removed I was told this website disconnects your internet then redials directly to them somehow. Its not located in the US so they told me to put a block on International and 900 calls.

I've had the same problem with tips as others have had...be sure to add the tip and the price of your meals together and write in the total yourself.

 

[Tina]

Cinders,

I always add the tip and total together. This waiter had run it through electronically at a higher total, but the receipt still reflected the amount I had written.

 

[disykat]

I always check my receipts. I've actually been impressed that I've only found one error in all these years. At a local chain restaurant our credit card was used on another bill in addition to ours. It was quickly cleared up. I've also received phone calls from the credit card company if we have unusual charges on our bill - just checking up to see if our card is secure. That amazed me.

I also check each receipt when I go to the store. One time I was with my husband at a mega grocery etc. store and he was paying the bill and I noticed it was HUGE. I grabbed the receipt and showed him a $100+ charge for a chair we had not purchased. He hadn't even blinked at the price and was going to walk away! Mistakes happen - I'm checking!