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$3.25 does not equal $325 - any better way to handle this?

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  • #16
    Quoth strawbabies View Post
    When someone charges your card, the money comes out of your account right away, but does not go directly to the merchant. It usually takes about four business days to get to them, as it goes through the Automated Clearing House first. When you are issued a refund, the reverse happens,
    And that right there is probably what keeps credit cards in business. They get to hold on to that money for several days, and I will bet they aren't just sticking it in their checking account intil it's time to hand it on to the recipient (i.e. merchant or cardholder, depending), they're moving it around and putting it in short-term investments.

    Heck, the whole reason AmEx offered a charge card in the first place was that people would insist on giving them interest-free loans (in the form of purchased travellers' checks) and they had to figure out something to do with it...

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    • #17
      Credit card companies will of course take the float, but especially with interest rates the way they are nowadays the amount is tiny compared to the service charges. Same with travelers checks.

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      • #18
        Quoth TheSHAD0W View Post
        Credit card companies will of course take the float, but especially with interest rates the way they are nowadays the amount is tiny compared to the service charges. Same with travelers checks.
        With the amount of money that is floating, that tiny interest rate is still a lot of money.
        "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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        • #19
          After our last batch of fraud, I learned my bank's policy on posting things. Debits take a full 24hrs on a business day and longer on the weekends. Deposits post FIRST, then debits. Holds are not counted as posted until they get authorization as a real transaction, so a hold will not cause overdraft fees. (I love my bank!) Holds lapse after three days, if no "cancel hold" is received by the charger.

          Deposits received electronically will apply the same day or are already posted...

          So when we saw fraud from our debit cards, mine lapsed because the charger caught it and canceled the order. My hubs, we filed contests for while they were considered "pending," and the paperwork would go into effect the moment they did post, which they did. A temporary "refund" was issued for the amount, so no overdraft fees for anything that went on after that. They found the card was used by the hubby on in Little Rock twice that day.. between charges that were made in Florida. One set was even 10 minutes apart!

          Did I mention I love my bank?
          If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

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          • #20
            The only advise I can really give is that the instant the pending charge goes through, if the refund hasn't gone through also, file a dispute on the charge. Even if you know the merchant is going to refund it, still dispute it because you can always cancel the dispute later and in the meantime, most banks will not charge overdraft fees or the like caused by charges that have a legitimate dispute on them (and a $325 charge for a $3.25 purchase that you can provide a receipt for is definitely legitimate).
            Will it hurt the merchant? Possibly, but when it comes to my money, I protect every penny of it because I can't afford to lose it and the merchant should have been doing the same with better training.
            If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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            • #21
              Quoth Yfandes View Post
              I stopped by a harbor side boat rental place to grab an ice cream and a water.
              Quoth smileyeagle1021 View Post
              the merchant should have been doing the same with better training.
              Definitely better training needed. Since the place the OP stopped carries vastly different types of merchandise, so either $3.25 or $325 would both be reasonable amounts for a transaction, when there's a handoff the employee asking a co-worker to ring it through needs to make it unambiguous.
              Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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