If you still don’t recognize the charge after investigation or if you identified a fraudulent charge, contact your card provider to request a chargeback and begin the dispute process. If the merchant is unwilling to correct the issue, you can reach out to your card provider for additional support. If they can, your problem will be resolved much more quickly. In many cases, the merchant can correct the mistake on their end. If you were double billed or you suspect a math error, contact the merchant directly and explain the issue. Depending on which issue you have, your first step may be different. The Fair Credit Billing Act protects you against unauthorized charges and billing errors. If you don’t see a phone number on your bill, call the number on the back of your card and ask them for help getting contact information for a particular merchant. Mention that you do recognize the purchase on your card statement and ask if they can tell you more about their company and what they sell. Similar to the online search, if you’re confused by the merchant name, it’s likely people have called before. To save room, the hyphens are often removed, so it may simply appear to be a string of 10 numbers. Some cards include the merchant phone number right on the transaction line of your statement. If you’re still stumped, reach out to the merchant by phone. If you share a computer or ordered items on a website before, your payment information may be saved as the default payment method. The purchase could be an accident as well. Life is busy, they may have even asked for permission and you forgot the conversation. Ask if there’s anyone in your household who may have borrowed your card. Ask Anyone Who May Have Access to Your CardĬheck with any authorized users on the account to see if they made the purchase. You may be able to identify the purchase by putting it in the context of your own schedule. Look at the other transactions from that same date and check to see what else you did on that day. Often the most challenging element of identifying a purchase is due to the amount of time that’s lapsed since you made the charge. A $4 transaction titled simply “Wagon Road” may not make sense, but in conjunction with the category of “ Travel” could remind you that it was for a parking garage. While you’re reviewing your statement, check the category assigned to the charge. You may find the website and phone number of the merchant. Chase, for instance, offers expanded merchant details on the transaction line within your recent activity. Some credit card providers offer additional information online or within their apps. If you still need more information, log into your account. You can often find enough information from an online search to identify the merchant in question, including their phone number. Chances are good that if you didn’t recognize a transaction, others had a similar experience. What You Should Do If You Don’t Recognize a Charge Try Online ResearchĪ quick online search of the merchant’s name exactly as it appears on your statement will likely generate some clarity. While both of these names help contextualize your order, not all purchases are that clear. For example, you may have noticed that DoorDash charges appear on your statement with the name of the restaurant. Sometimes, websites that redirect you to a different payment processor may include a combination of both companies. Some transactions may also require that supplemental data is included in those 25 characters. For most merchants this length should be sufficient, but when it’s not, some interesting abbreviations come into play. While the chosen name may make sense at the moment of purchase, when your bill arrives 28 days later, that food truck purchase at Señor Burrito can show up on your statement as parent company ABC Incorporated.Īnother issue is that transaction data is limited to 25 characters. According to Visa’s Merchant Data Standards, the name must convey both the name most prominently displayed by the merchant and the merchant’s “Doing Business As” (DBA) name. Some charges will come through as an alternative trading name for the company or list the location where the company is headquartered, rather than the location of your purchase.Īlso, the naming conventions that try to offer clarification may be more challenging for some vendors. Merchant Names May be Different on Your Bill Before you assume your card was hacked, know that there are other potential reasons you may not recognize the charge. Your credit card statement arrives and for the life of you, you don’t remember the purchase.
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