Account Dispute Letter

We must formally file a dispute letter with the institution that sends us the bills in order to properly refute a transaction on a credit card or any other account. Once in a while, our account statements may disclose unidentified and erroneous transactions, which may have appeared due to errors, merchant fraud, or identity theft. In cases where transactions and amounts are unknown to us, we must immediately contact the institution such as the bank that sent us the bills and refute the charges. Other institutions may include hospitals, colleges and universities, doctors and others. Unidentified transactions are worrisome because they might indicate the beginning of much worse to come. That’s why we must immediately investigate and attempt to understand the root cause of the unauthorized transaction. If the transaction is confirmed by the institution not be an error, it is possible to assume that someone is using our personal information to commit identity fraud. We must put a stop to the fraudulent use of our accounts immediately and one good way to do so is to contact the institution and let them know about the situation. Most likely, the banks will recommend closing the accounts immediately. You must call the bank for immediate notification and you must also write to the bank just in case their systems crash and all the phone discussion notes that the customer service representative had entered into the system disappear. In order to create your own personalized dispute letter for unauthorized transactions, you can copy and paste the following section into a word document to create an account dispute letter for unauthorized transactions. You must make sure to use this as a blueprint and enter your own information to reflect your specific situation.

Date
Your Name
Your Address
Your City, State, Zip Code
Your Account Number

Name of Creditor
Billing Inquiries
Address
City, State, Zip Code

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to dispute fraudulent transaction (s) on my account in the amount of $______. Unless this is an error on your part, I can confidently assume to be a victim of identity theft, because I did not initiate and approve the transaction (s). I am requesting that the transaction (s) be removed from my account and all finance and other charges related to the fraudulent transaction (s) be also credited. I would also like to request a revised account statement to ensure appropriate changes to my account have been accurately made. Enclosed are copies of my statement with fraudulent transaction (s) highlighted and my identity theft police report (if any) supporting my position. Please investigate this matter and remove the fraudulent transaction (s) as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Your name

Enclosures: (List what you are enclosing.)

Dispute Letter For Incorrect Amounts

It is also possible to discover transactions that we recognize, however, with an incorrect amount. For example, you may see a transaction for a restaurant that you recently visited but the statement amount seems higher than what you believe you authorized the restaurant to charge. Hopefully, you keep your customer copy of the receipt when you signed the credit card transaction, but even if you don’t, you must not worry and I’ll explain why in a minute. If you have a copy of the signed credit card transaction and are able to provide a photocopy of the receipt to your credit card company when submitting the account dispute letter, you will allow the credit card company to immediately go after the merchant and credit your account. On the other hand, if you don’t have a copy of the transaction, then the credit card company must follow up with the merchant and ask for the copy of your signed transaction. Although, merchants are required to keep a copy of each signed credit card transaction, not every merchant will be able to provide the transaction copy immediately, prolonging your account dispute process. This may not be a big deal to you since your account will be credited while your case is in dispute, but there could be complications if the merchant can’t locate the receipt and it becomes a case of your word against the merchant’s word while dragging the credit card company in the middle. Even if you win the case while the merchant disagrees with you, you may lose a relationship with a merchant that you cherished in the past. However, with a copy of the signed transaction in your hand, you can solidly convince the merchant and the credit card company that there was an error, thus quickly and favorably close your case, and possibly even get an apology or a free dinner from the merchant. Again, in order to create your own personalized dispute letter, you can copy and paste the following section into a word document to create an account dispute letter for erroneous transaction amounts. You must make sure to use this as a blueprint and enter your own information to reflect your specific situation.

Date
Your Name
Your Address
Your City, State, Zip Code
Your Account Number

Name of Creditor
Billing Inquiries
Address
City, State, Zip Code

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to dispute an erroneous transaction on my account in the mount of $______. The amount of the transaction posted to my account on mm/dd/yyyy for my dinner at XYZ restaurant was not $___ but rather $__. Please credit my account for $__, plus any finance or other related charges. I would also like to request a revised account statement to ensure appropriate changes to my account have been accurately made. Enclosed is a copy of my credit card charge slip from the XYZ restaurant and my statement with erroneous transaction and amount highlighted for your reference. Please make the corrections before my next payment due date.

Sincerely,

Your name

Enclosures: (charge slip and account statement) 

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