I purchased a service from the company that did not include in detail of proper disclosures of third party merchants details like merchants name before asking for my credit card details and having that information included in the contract. So my question is isn't it illegal for a company to give my credit card information to a third party merchant to charge my card without my knowledge or my authorization? When I notice on my credit card statement of the merchant who charged my card I look them up and there were numerous complaints about them. Any advice on how to handle my situation to get my funds back, I would appreciate any type of assistance that members can help me with. Thank you, catchdacons
In general I think it is illegal for a company to give your financial details to a third-party and then that third-party charge your card without reason or notification. The problem that comes in is whether there was truly no authorization. As consumers we like direct disclosure, but it seems that there are lots of companies who don't give it directly. It's buried in the rest of their legalese. Unless you're familiar with how the company operates, be sure to read EVERYTHING before purchasing something from them. A lot of times there are little snippets we miss as customers that actually make what they're doing valid or legal...we just didn't know to look for it. So I'd advise you to read over all of their terms and disclaimers again just to be sure. Now that they've charged you I think you might have a few options. Check with your bank or credit card provider to see if you can report this as an unauthorized charge. Most banks and card lenders will cover this but you have to start a claim and it's a bit of a process. The only other thing I know to do is to see about getting a lawyer to look over the terms and see if they can find anything that would have allowed this charge. If they can't, then you can either choose to pursue a lawsuit or give it up and cut your losses depending on how expensive that process will be. I HIGHLY recommend that you cancel the card you used so that they can't continue to charge you. Report the unauthorized charge to your bank or card lender as your reason for canceling the card and ensure that the new card they send to you will have a different number. At least then you can cut off any future unauthorized charges. For the record, I had this happen to me once. Some company that sold discount memberships (where you could get discounts on groceries and electronics etc. had somehow gotten my info and charged my card $99 out of the blue one day. I had no idea who they were but my statement provided a toll free number. After a lot of arguing and threats to them I got my money back. It was like 30 days later, but that's better than nothing. And it happened on my Paypal card, and because the company was supposed to mail something physical (membership card and kit) and I hadn't received anything after a certain amount of time Paypal was willing to mediate and help me get that money back. I hope some of those same options are available to you. Good luck, and I hope it turns out in your favor.
