Fighting with your
credit card company? By Libby
Wells • Bankrate.com
Here are 5 effective counter-punches:
1. Keep documents from credit card companies. Six years is the recommended time because account records
are valuable at tax time. The most important documents are
the ones that lay out the rules and the ones that you're disputing.
So keep the disclosure statement you get when your card first
comes in the mail and the fine-print documents that amend
it. They're your contract with the credit issuer. In a dispute?
You need the bill that contains the disputed item and the
postmarked envelope in which it arrived.
2. Keep charge receipts and compare them
with each credit card bill. "You need to be very timely in evaluating and reviewing
your accounts," says Nancy Nauser, president of Consumer Credit
Counseling Service of Greater Kansas City and Mid-Missouri.
3. Read the fine print. "Even though it is incredibly dense and long and difficult
to follow, people need to make a hard effort to read that,"
says Paul Bland, a lawyer with Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.
"Most consumers are unaware of it, but courts hold them to
the fine print unless it is incredibly unfair."
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4. Don't do business with card companies
that take away your right to sue them. This clause, which you will find in the fine print, is
called an arbitration provision. "Arbitration provisions are
not in consumers' best interests," says Robert Green, a lawyer
with the National Association for Consumer Advocates.
5. If your dispute is with the merchant,
tell the card company to stop payment on that bill. It's similar to stopping payment on a check because you
were unhappy with the product or service. The fight is between
you and the vendor. Check the Truth
in Lending Act, though, because there are restrictions.
