subject: What To Do If Your Credit Card Is Charged Twice [print this page] It's a big dilemma for the modern credit card user: what should you do if a transaction appears twice on a statement, apparently debiting the account twice?
It's also a more common dilemma than you might think.
For example, as if New Year's Eve wasn't expensive enough, one credit card company mistakenly charged thousands of cardholders twice for purchases made in bars, restaurants and shops on December 31st.
The glitch affected around 200,000 UK debit and credit card users who visited retailers using payment processing terminals provided by the company.
Later, the company admitted to the problem and issued a statement stating that retailers experienced a system error when using some wireless terminals to process payments.
The fault affects cardholders from a number of banks as the terminals accept all forms of card.
One person who found himself a victim looked at subsequent statements showed that an amount had been taken on both the 3rd and 4th of January. The restaurant where it happened is trying to contact other customers who may have also been double-charged.
While apologizing for the inconvenience caused to cardholders they sought to reassure people that the technical error only affected certain types of payments made by cardholders to some merchants.
For its own customers, the bank assured cardholders that duplicated transactions were being reversed and the cardholders reimbursed.
It added that it would consider all reasonable requests for reimbursement, provided that supporting evidence was presented.
So what should credit card holders do about this problem?
Consumers who suspect that they may have been affected should check their statements and then contact the telephone helpline of the company that had the error.
The number should also be the first point of contact for cardholders from any bank who find that a doubly charge transaction has resulted in them being penalized.
Retailers are sold terminals after a credit card comparison with the assurance that they will result in the swift and safe payments of transactions.
As well as the standard desktop variety, companies offer devices that are portable and mobile. Terminals are compatible with all of the major credit card schemes and promise "faster and more efficient processing of each sale".
There is little consumers can do but trust these processors in a similar way that they trust reference agencies when applying for instant decision credit cards.
For example, Cardnet has board representation for all the major three card schemes - Visa, Maestro and MasterCard. Cardnet is jointly owned by First Data, the world's largest card processor. The company helps around 50,000 UK-based merchants process 10.2 billion worldwide transactions per annum.
On the other hand, the US-based First Data Corporation provides electronic payment and commerce services. These include transaction processing service for merchants, internet commerce and mobile payment solutions; a variety of pre-paid card products; as well as fraud-prevention and authentication solutions.
First Data is listed as one of the world's top 250 companies.
