Partial chargebacks

dj1471

In all the discussions I've seen on here about chargeback (and in the MSE article) I've never seen the ability to perform a partial chargeback discussed, but looking at the Visa and MasterCard T&Cs it appears to be possible, e.g. MasterCard:

The issuer may initiate a chargeback when the circumstances of the transaction meet the requirement of a chargeback reason code...A chargeback may be for the total transaction amount or a lesser amount.
Additionally, one clearing transaction may have multiple chargebacks for partial amounts.

Is this something UK card issuers are able and willing to perform? Has anyone successfully done this?

The reason I'm interested is that I made a number of cash withdrawals overseas on my fee-free MasterCard for which the ATM provider has charged a fee - without informing me and without my agreement (i.e. I withdrew $100 and was unexpectedly billed $105). The ATM did not prompt me to accept the fee nor was there any signage :mad:

IAmWales

That wouldn't fall under the chargeback scheme.

Who operated the ATMs, and what did they say when you highlighted this issue to them?

agrinnall

dj1471 wrote: »

The ATM did not prompt me to accept the fee nor was there any signage :mad:

Do the laws of the country require such warnings? Just because they are required here doesn't necessarily mean they are everywhere. Perhaps it's just common knowledge that there is a fee for every withdrawal.

dj1471

IAmWales wrote: »

That wouldn't fall under the chargeback scheme.

Why? There are several chargeback codes that cover an incorrect / unauthorised amount being billed.

IAmWales wrote: »

Who operated the ATMs, and what did they say when you highlighted this issue to them?

The ATM belongs to a Vietnamese bank. The language barrier made raising the issue impossible.

agrinnall wrote: »

Do the laws of the country require such warnings?

A prompt is required by the MasterCard Transaction Processing Rules:

Any Acquirer that plans to charge an ATM Access Fee must notify the Cardholder with a screen display that states the ATM Access Fee policy and provides the Cardholder with an option to cancel the requested Transaction.

Buzby

Withdrawing cash abroad has always resulted in a fee being raised, irrespective of whether a credit or debit card. The former usually results (in addition to the facility fee) interest from the withdrawal date, plus the currency exchange fee at (usually) the interbank rate. Expecting a notice on a foreign ATM to alert you would be unreasonable. But expecting not to pay anything because you weren’t advised of it is worse. You took cash, there’s no scope for any chargeback.

agrinnall

dj1471 wrote: »

The ATM belongs to a Vietnamese bank. The language barrier made raising the issue impossible.

There were very few ATMs in Vietnam that didn't charge a fee when I was there 9 years ago, and it was well known that fees would be charged, I'm pretty sure it was in the guidebooks.

dj1471

agrinnall wrote: »

There were very few ATMs in Vietnam that didn't charge a fee when I was there 9 years ago, and it was well known that fees would be charged, I'm pretty sure it was in the guidebooks.

There are enough of them around, at least a couple of the major banks don't charge. Every other fee-charging ATM I encountered displayed its fee and allowed the transaction to be cancelled.

chattychappy

dj1471 wrote: »

There are enough of them around, at least a couple of the major banks don't charge. Every other fee-charging ATM I encountered displayed its fee and allowed the transaction to be cancelled.

Ditto my experience, the situation has got better. Once upon a time, ALL ATMs charged.

Which ATM did you use?

By the way, with an exchange rate of about £1 = VND30,000 can make things confusing. Ie £100 is about VND3,000,000 and unfortunately some ATMs don't display the commas, showing VND3000000 !

chattychappy

Buzby wrote: »

Expecting a notice on a foreign ATM to alert you would be unreasonable. But expecting not to pay anything because you weren’t advised of it is worse. You took cash, there’s no scope for any chargeback.

Disagree with this entirely. If the ATM applies it's own charge, then you "should" be advised prior to the withdrawal. Forex loadings, interest and other fees are a matter for your cardholder agreement.

Buzby

chattychappy wrote: »

Disagree with this entirely. If the ATM applies it's own charge, then you "should" be advised prior to the withdrawal. Forex loadings, interest and other fees are a matter for your cardholder agreement.

And how would this be achieved? With a sign (in Vietnamese) staying that for some cards, fees may be charged? Many of these sites run machines with a Windows XP front end that at best will read the card strip and offer to switch to the card’s local language, but that’s about it - it then goes to the ‘enter PIN’ verification. It would be nice to be told if a charge is made, but since it is standard to pay for non-Home-bank withdrawal transactions, why the surprise? My RBS account charges me 35p ‘Automated Withdrawal Fee’ for each debit card transaction - nothing is shown on the machine as some user don’t Get charged it.

A chargeback won’t happen, as nothing went ‘wrong’.

dj1471

Buzby wrote: »

And how would this be achieved?

A prompt before the transaction is completed with the option to cancel, like every other fee-charging ATM does.

Buzby wrote: »

It would be nice to be told if a charge is made, but since it is standard to pay for non-Home-bank withdrawal transactions...

No it isn't. Once I switched to a fee-free ATM I only paid a few pence in interest per withdrawal, nothing more.

Buzby wrote: »

My RBS account charges me 35p ‘Automated Withdrawal Fee’ for each debit card transaction

That's not the same - that's a charge from your issuer not from the ATM itself.