Im curious to see if anyone has ever put a charge into dispute or a stop payment on a credit card charge? How did it end up?

My wife and I just did this for the first time with a difficult situation with a photographer.

I've done it with American Express and they'll literally just waive it and deal with it themselves unless you are completely wrong.

They're the best with that sort of thing.

Otherwise, it varies from company to company.

This much I do know - it's much better to do this with a credit card than with a debit card...you have a lot more control over the situation.

Amex is amazing at it. I've had to do it a few times and have always won. I had legit reasons. I've heard other CC companies aren't as good as AMEX at taking the customers side (vs. the merchants side).

Amex has decided it's more advantageous to keep the customer loyal rather than lose them over a disagreement every now and again.

My guess is this pays out tenfold over the long run, but I could be wrong.

I put in a dispute and CC resolved in my favor.

If the charge is MC or Visa, there is no hold. If the charge is already run/swiped/approved, you are filing a dispute over services rendered. If the Photographer has not provided services within the agreed upon time, and refuses to address your concerns then you can file a dispute over the charge and the bank will go after them for you for credit.

The question really is, did the photographer do a bad job, or just hasnt come through with the pictures at all? Sometimes a dispute can be tricky based on perception of services rendered(ie. these pictures suck im not paying for them vs I never got what I paid for/double billed for services)


Amex has a completely different relationship with merchants which is why fraud and disputes is handled differently, and it is also why Amex is not accepted universally. Basically the onus is on the merchant, and they dont like that.

Ahhh....wisdom.

More like "line of work"

People tell us to "not pay that merchant" and stop payment all the time. It simply doesn't work like that

It's Visa. They seemed pretty good as of yesterday.

Basically we've paid for some items that we have not received and those items that we have received, are substantially sub-par.

I've never done this in the 15 or so years I have a credit card. I only did it, so the merchant would take us seriously in our efforts to get a partial credit on what was paid.

I've never resorted to calling a credit card provider to resolve a dispute. I prefer to tell the offending party that between Facebook, Twitter, and whatever local/national message boards might apply to their particular business, I can pretty much promise that you will miss out on at least twice as much business as the value of our dispute.

There is also the threat of small claims court...

I had to get Discover involved back when I finally got rid of AOL. I'm not sure how many times I called them and canceled yet they continued to charge my card for 3 months afterward.

AOL was notoriously difficult to get rid of. I remember hearing some real horror stories about people trying to cancel.

LMAO and that really works for you? Maybe for some small businesses here and there, but merchants like Walmart would laugh in your face.


Small claims court is a tough route to go, most of the time you end up wasting your own time and money and never get a resolve anyways

recurring billers are all tough to deal with. Magazines, internet service providers, etc. Some people throw their hands up and just change the card number altogether

No, wouldn't work for someplace like WalMart, but works pretty well for local businesses.

Our disputes dept tries to get people to contact the merchant first, but many times it doesnt go smoothly.

I had one and it was handled very nicely. Turns out the merchant and I were both wrong. I received a credit in about a week. Then I received a very nice letter stating that perhaps I was wrong. (The company name that appeared was not the same as where I shopped).

AOL was the worst though. I think the CS reps were trained to do anything and everything except actually allow you to cancel your service.

People were literally recording their conversations and posting them on Youtube.

I have a few times, and "won" every time. That said, it works different ways...

Amex and Discover are actual credit companies...they issue all of their own cards, and back up all of them, etc...

MasterCard and Visa are merely "brand names", which any credit institution can use (they pay royalties), etc...

When it comes to Amex and Discover, they do the work for you, and walk a pretty hard line of backing up the card holder, not the merchant. When it comes to MC/Visa, it all depends on who is the actual issuer...for example, if you have a Visa card from Fifth Third Bank, it's up to Fifth Third Bank whether they will back you or the merchant, or what their policies are regarding holds/disputes.

So...I tend to never use Visa/MC anywhere, as I know (from personal experience) that if I have a problem, Amex and Discover have my back (as they both have a few times). Again, I'm not saying your specific Visa/MC issuer won't have your back, but the policies regarding those "brands" widely differ.

I have chase and they immediately disputed the charge and credited my account. It was for a double bill, but they still immediately reversed the charges.

Right, and in your case, it would be Chase's policies...as you probably hold a Chase issued "Visa". For something as simple as a double charge, almost no issuer would deny you.

But for more 'iffy' circumstances, their rules can be more vague.

In one of my examples, we paid for and stayed at a Holiday Inn after a wedding...and the woman at the front desk immediately had a problem with us, for no apparent reason. Needless to say, she says we were loud, obnoxious, waking up others at the hotel and trashing our rooms. She called the police at 1am to have us escorted out.

1) The rooms were not trashed, even the police noted that.
2) She attempted to "enter my room" without my permission when I answered the door for her, and told the police that I, "Got in her face"...which, right...I answered my hotel room door when she knocked so she claims that was "getting in her face".
3) Neighboring rooms woke up to see why police were out there and said we weren't loud, and never woke them up.
4) Regardless, the police said we had to leave because the manager wanted us out.

Note we used the rooms all day/up until 1am...I put a dispute on the charge, Discover credited me...and weeks later corporate Holiday Inn called to apologize and offered us a free nights stay at any Holiday Inn.

I never paid for the room, despite the fact that we used it most of the day/night. A few people also put the room on dispute that used Visa/MC...and got denied, and had to pay for their rooms. Any of us that had used Discover/Amex did not end up having to pay.

That's my personal experience and why I'll never use a bank issued or private issued card like Visa/MC.