Credit Card Unauthorized Transaction While In Possession

Introduction

A few days ago, I noticed an unauthorized transaction on my credit card statement from 99 Ranch Market. The transaction occurred while I still had my physical credit card in hand, which was quite puzzling. I immediately contacted my credit card issuer to report the unauthorized transaction and to dispute the charge.

In this blog post, I would like to share my experience of disputing the unauthorized transaction with my credit card issuer and my personal opinions about their response.

Credit Card Issuer Response

The credit card issuer responded with the following message after I reported the unauthorized transaction:

“We’re writing in regards to the transaction at 99 Ranch Market that you marked as unauthorized. Sometimes merchants batch transactions, which just means that there is a delay in processing transactions on their end. Based on your transaction history at this merchant and because this charge was captured with your physical card and you still have your card, we do not believe this follows fraudulent spending patterns and have closed this case. Please let us know if you have any questions.”

My Opinions

I think the credit card issuer’s response is not satisfactory. I have been shopping at 99 Ranch Market for years, and I have never encountered any such kind of delayed transactions before. In addition, the last time I shopped at 99 Ranch Market was more than a month ago before the unauthorized transaction occurred. Therefore, it is unlikely that the unauthorized transaction was a result of delayed processing by the merchant.

Finally, even if the unauthorized transaction was a result of delayed processing by the merchant, the credit card issuer should have not allowed it to go through since it had already been so long since my last transaction at that merchant. It’s the merchant’s responsibility to ensure that transactions are processed in a timely manner, and they should be responsible for any losses incurred due to delayed processing.