How to Find Unauthorized Charges on Your Credit Card
When you look at your credit card statement and see an odd purchase amount or a company name that you can’t enter, it’s possible that at best you just forgot what you bought, or at worst your card number was stolen. Often, cryptic card payments are recurring payments (like subscriptions) that you forgot about, valid (but still surprising) fees, or strings that appear under merchant names that don’t match the companies you’ve purchased from, such as the parent company. company or payment. CPU. For example, TST* probably refers to Toast, a point of sale system used by many restaurants. Less commonly, but more seriously, an allegation is a mistake or outright fraud. Here’s how to figure it out and what to do about unauthorized payments.
Use WhatsThatCharge to decipher cryptic credit card payments
First of all, you should probably check your credit card and bank statements from time to time for unfamiliar payments. If you see something you don’t recognize, obviously start by remembering what you were doing the day or two the purchase was made, because you may have just forgotten you bought a coffee or ordered something online. .
Other places to check are in your statement history for similar charges, which may indicate recurring subscription fees (such as APL*ITUNES.COM/BILL) or fees, and anyone who is eligible to use your account, whether it is a joint user or a member of the family plan associated with your card.
If that doesn’t get you anywhere, copy the entire position on Google to see if anyone else has researched the payment and identified it as a business or payment processing service.WhatsThatCharge.com is a crowdsourced database of credit card charges where you can find more information. From there, the next step is to call your card issuer to clarify the charge. They may be able to look for a merchant on their end.
How to File a Credit Card Fraud Report
If, after investigation, you believe that your card charge is fraudulent, you should initiate a claim process with your card issuer. You can usually do this over the phone by calling the number on the back of your card or through your online account.
Your card issuer will cancel your existing credit card and send you a new one. You are not liable for fraudulent purchases greater than $50 – nor for any charges debited after you report it – and some credit cards have additional fraud liability protections.
Please note that this is different from a dispute , which allows you to correct a billing error, such as overpaying or being charged more than once for the same purchase. Generally, disputes must be filed within 60 days of being charged.