504. Exactly which credit card purchases qualify under the Fair Credit Billing Act?
Description
This article is from the Credit cards and Consumer Credit FAQ, by adams@spss.com (Steve Adams) with numerous contributions by others.
504. Exactly which credit card purchases qualify under the Fair Credit Billing Act?
You are protected if all of the following are true:
- The purchase was made with a credit card. (If it was a debit
card, the money is already gone from your account and the bank
won't get involved.)
- The amount charged is more than $50. (The amount in dispute could
be less, for example if you bought a $90 lamp but were billed
$100. The amount in dispute is $10.)
- You made the purchase somewhere in your home state, or within 100
miles of your mailing address. (I am not an attorney, but my
understanding is that if you are having goods shipped to you by
mail or phone order, the place of purchase is the address you are
having them shipped to.)
If some of the above are not true, you are still protected if the
credit-card company owns or operates the merchant, or the credit-
card company mailed you the advertisement for what you bought. In
that case your purchase is covered by the rules no matter where you
bought or how much you paid.
In addition, you MAY successfully protest charges outside of these
parameters, but there is no legal requirement for the credit card
company to do so.
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