| Fair Credit Billing Act and your rights |
| By Lucy Lazarony
• Bankrate.com |
| Ever get a
credit card statement and find an error? The amount is wrong, or you never received
the product you've been billed for?
You can fight the improper charge, and the
law is on your side. What gives you the right to fight
rather than pay? The Fair Credit Billing Act.
To be protected under this federal law, you'll need to follow four key rules.
Let's start by taking a closer look at billing
errors and how the Fair Credit Billing Act gives you the power to fight back. Billing
errors defined
The law defines a wide gamut of card
problems as "billing errors." These include a charge for something you
didn't buy, a charge with the wrong date or amount and a charge for a good or
service that you didn't receive or accept. Also considered
billing errors are math mistakes, the failure of an issuer to credit a payment
or return and the failure of an issuer to send a bill to your current address
once you've given notice of your move. Finally, any
charge on your bill that you want to have explained or you don't recognize can
be treated as a billing error under the Fair Credit Billing Act. Put
it in writing ASAP
To be protected under this law,
you'll need to dispute any errors you find on your card bill in writing. That's
Important Rule No. 1. "Faxing a letter will
not protect you. E-mail will not protect you. Talking to people on the phone won't
protect you," says Howard Strong, author of "What Every Credit Card
User Needs to Know." "The best thing is to send a letter." And
you'll need to mail your dispute letter fairly quickly. The deadline for notifying
your credit card company of a billing error is 60 days from the date the bill
was mailed to you. That's Important Rule No. 2.
Keep in mind that the 60-day clock starts ticking on the day your issuer mails
your billing statement, not the date you receive it. So
by the time you receive your bill, you actually have 50-odd days to get a dispute
letter back to your card issuer. If the envelope
of a card bill doesn't have a postmark, you can call your issuer and ask when
your bill was sent out. Or you can follow the advice
of Gerri Detweiler, author of "The Ultimate Credit Handbook," and use
the cut-off date on your card bill as a guideline for the 60-day rule. The cut-off
date is the date your last billing cycle closed.
According to the law, your dispute letter must include your name, address, account
number and a description of the problem. This is Important Rule No. 3. Avoid
venting
And there's no need to go on and on in a
dispute letter to a credit card issuer. Keep it simple and keep a copy for your
records. "Describe the problem as succinctly
as possible, as clearly as possible," Detweiler says. "If you have any
documentation to back it up, include that."
Let's say your card company didn't give you credit for a return. If you have your
return receipt, make a copy of the receipt and mail it with your dispute letter.
Hang on to the original receipt for your records.
Not sure what to put in your dispute letter? Check out these
guidelines and a sample letter from Bankrate.com.
Be sure to send your dispute letter to the address for "Billing Inquiries,"
which is listed on the back of your card bill. This is Important Rule No. 4. If
you send your dispute letter to the address for payments, there's a good chance
it will get lost or thrown out. Plus, if you send your dispute letter to the wrong
address, you won't be protected under the law. "The
Fair Credit Billing Act is very specific," Detweiler says. "You do have
to send it to the proper address." | 
