Disputing charges with Amex?

OptimasPrime · ‎02-13-2013

I've been having some billing issues with a gym membership that is billed directly to my bce. Long story short they confused my account with someone else's and temporarily froze my membership without my consent. When I found out and called them to unfreeze, they said there would be no additional fees to unfreeze my account.

Today they hit me with a $9.50 late fee ( it's not so much the $ I care about, it's more the principle of the thing). Ive contacted the vendor and would prefer to not involve Amex over such a small charge, but the reps have been very unhelpful. I will wait until the end of the week to see if the merchant will remove the fee on their own. If not then I will file a dispute.

Im pretty confident I'm in the right on this one,so I'm not concerned so much over who Amex will side with. I'm more interested in hearing from posters who have had charges disputed on Amex before, and how easy/time consuming the process was. Any input is appreciated

Thanks!

Walt_K · ‎02-13-2013

It's pretty easy. I always give the vendor a shot at correcting it first. I think Amex tells you that you have to do that, but I can't remember. In any event, sounds like you've already done that, so file away. You can either call them up or do it online. Just takes a couple minutes either way. You can upload documents to them online as well, so if you have e-mail exchanges or anything like that to support your claim, you can provide them.

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RobertEG · ‎02-14-2013

If informal complaints over CC billing issues cant be resolved, that is the purpose of the dispute process under the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA).

That process is more powerful than the dispute process under the FCRA for credit reporting issues, as it provides for consumer access to documentation from the creditor, and addresses the billing conflict itself rather than the spinoff issue of its reporting to a CRA. The FCRA dispute processes dont require that they provide any documentation to support their verification of accuracy of their reporting.

I suggest use of the FCBA dispute process.