We have a customer who called in disputing transactions on his debit card the end of December. We require the customer to sign a written dispute. He refused to sign the dispute. So we did not give him provisional credit. We are working on the investigation but are unable to go forward with our processor due to not having the signed dispute. We also doubt that they are unauthorized due to past activity of the same type as the disputed transactions. Now today he wants to sign the disputes. Am I correct in thinking that the provisional credit does not need to be given? Can we also extend the investigation period due to the transactions being processed out of the country? Thanks.

Correct. He passed the deadline for providing the written confirmation, so you aren't required to provide provisional credit under Reg. E (you have the option to do so, however). The deadline for completing your investigation would be 90 days from the date of the oral filing of the claim if the transactions were merchant transactions or transactions at ATMs located outside of U.S. jurisdiction.