Making purchases with credit cards is tremendously popular nowadays: you can hardly find a location where plastics are not accepted. At the end of the billing cycle your creditor will provide you with a billing statement in which there is a balance you need to pay off. With credit scam running rampant these days, it can cost you dear not to check your bills for errors or fraudulent transactions. If you find a mistake, for example a charge for an item you didn't buy, you can dispute the bill with your creditor. Follow our guideline to protect your rights.

Errors in credit bills happen from time to time. The most typical mistakes you can find are unauthorized charges or charges for the purchases you have already paid for or taken back. There can also be mistakes in subtraction or addition. Keep in mind that federal law doesn't cover disputes over the price of goods or services unless certain restrictions apply, charges for items you do not need anymore or charges for purchases the store refused to take back.

If you want to correct the billing errors, follow these steps:

1. Inform your lender of the mistake within sixty days of getting the credit card statement. It is not enough just to call your lender; you need to write them a letter. Include your name, current address, number of the account and photocopies of the relevant documents. Don't forget to remind the lender that you are a good and reliable cardholder. Many companies can write off disputes under $50 to maintain good customer relations.

Use certified mail to send the letter: it will help you to prove that your claim arrived at its destination.

2. Pay the correct part of the billing statement: the undisputed amount plus necessary fees and interest charges.

3. The credit company must respond to your claim within thirty days. They will inform you about the result of their investigation in writing. If they decide that the error was made, they will reverse any related charges. If the credit company believes that the bill was correct, you need to pay all finance charges that accumulated during the dispute.

4. The creditor can do nothing against you while the error is in dispute. It's illegal to report delinquencies or cancel credit cards. The creditor can only report that you are disputing a debt. If a lender doesn't abide the Fair Credit Billing Act, you can sue them for breaking the law.

5. After you have received the answer from the credit company, you can agree with their decision or continue disputing the charge on your credit card. If you choose the second variant, write to the creditor within 10 days. Ask them to send you documents which they used to investigate the claim.

Don't ignore billing mistakes in the hopes that they will disappear. The process of disputing a claim is not as difficult or time-consuming as it may seem at the first glance. Protect your rights. Otherwise, you can end up paying for charges you didn't make or getting an automatic judgment in court.