Transaction appears 6 months after taking place

pedgepuk

I've just checked my recent Amex transactions online from my February statement and have found a transaction that shows taking place in August 2008. I was on holiday at the time and am unable to see if it was indeed genuine or not as I've thrown out the receipts. The transaction itself is for a restaurant and I can't recall the name nor can I prove I visited the establishment.

The main problem here is that it shows taking place on the 20th of August but took 6 months to be submitted where in this time the pound has taken a hammering causing a loss of £15 when comparing Augusts exchange rate to todays. The exchange rate at the time was 0.81p to 1 Euro whereas for the date the transaction was received is 0.96p to the Euro.

Amex have said that merchants have upto a year to submit transactions and that Amex are not liable for rate fluctuation differences caused by the late submission of transactions.

Is this right? I can't see how I should have £15 taken out of my pocket because the merchant decides to submit his transactions late and Amex saying they're not interested.

Can anybody offer advice?

elaina79

I know that with my debit card the merchant has 6 months in which to take a payment. I have set up a spreadsheet now and record all transactions that I make so I know exactly how much I have spent.

Robert_Sterling_3

elaina79 wrote: »

I have set up a spreadsheet now and record all transactions that I make so I know exactly how much I have spent.

Me too ..................

jonesMUFCforever

It may have cost you £15 more because of the exchange rate but the restaurant also have given you an interest free loan for 6 months.
Why throw out a receipt if it has not been debited to your account - was the restaurant in the place you were on holiday on the date it took place? If so on the balance of probability I would pay up.

This is an example of the risk you take when using the card abroad in a different currency - would you be complaining if the rate had gone the other way and you had saved £15?

pedgepuk

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

It may have cost you £15 more because of the exchange rate but the restaurant also have given you an interest free loan for 6 months.
Why throw out a receipt if it has not been debited to your account - was the restaurant in the place you were on holiday on the date it took place? If so on the balance of probability I would pay up.

This is an example of the risk you take when using the card abroad in a different currency - would you be complaining if the rate had gone the other way and you had saved £15?

I understand your point on making £15 but I shouldn't have to lose out on £15 for somebody else's doings.

Until Amex contact me with their findings on this transaction I'll know where I stand with respect to it being an authentic transaction. Yes I should have kept the receipt but there can't be many of us that keep receipts for longer than a few months if at all.

I'm not sure how you can call it an interest free loan. If this is the case then it's a loan that's been forced on my account without me agreeing to it. I always pay may balance in full so this transaction is actually penalising me for no fault of my own. Something that should show up as £58 is showing as £73 at todays rate.

In over 20 years I've held various credit cards and the dozens of trips I've made overseas, I've never encountered an issue of a late transaction appearing on my statements.

jonesMUFCforever

Sorry you feel the way you do but you stand no chance of getting anywhere with this.
Read the terms and conditions of the card - the rate used will be the rate on the date the transaction is processed.
You had a free meal until it appeared on your statement.
Let it be - IMO you are wasting people's time in pursuing it.

INT1

It's like when you get a refund for a fuel deposit, it could be a poorer rate at which it was debited, or it could be a better rate...Swings and roundabouts.

NickX

Well some years back I paid for a meal in Dubai on a Barclaycard.

The restaurant actually charged my card twice, then realised their mistake and refunded one of the charges.

Due to the differential in exchange rates, once the refund was processed it was around £15 less than it should have been.

I spoke to Barclaycard about this and they imediately credited the £15 as a gesture because this was due to no fault of my own. Fair play to Barclaycard :beer:

If I were you, I think I would push them on this and perhaps even write a letter of complaint.

lolarentt

I can't understand your not checking your cc statements every month against your receipts, particularly with foreign transactions. We do this every month with all our cards (all of which get paid off in full) and I will keep the statements with receipts attached for a minimum of 12 months (or until I get around to sorting themout!)
I've had instances in the past with foreign items where they have been charged twice in error so we always check these.
We all know that ERs are what's ruling on the day the merchant's charge reaches the cc company so it's just unfortunate when a delay works against you.
Probably worth trying to cajole Amex into some sort of rebate- at least with Amex you get people who understand what you're talking about and, I find, happily credit back charges when something goes wrong with your payments and they turn up a few days late. Also they've just (this week) credited me £500 for ferry crossings booked with the now defunct Speedferries so they've earned a brownie point or two for the ease with which this was achieved!

pedgepuk

Update on this issue...

Amex sent me a letter saying that they have credited my account for the full amount. It didn't actually state why but my assumption would be that the merchant isn't able to prove the transaction or it would be difficult to investigate as it occured 6 months ago.

Nethertheless I'm pleased with the result and will indeed keep my eye open in future should transactions not appear on my statement when they occur.

INT1

Good AMEX, they do look after their customers :cool: