Good day.

In 1005.11(2)(i)(A) (paraphrased) the institution need not provide provisional credit if the institution requires but does not receive written confirmation within 10 business days of an oral notice.

Does this mean, if the time the bank receives the written confirmation is beyond 10 business days, the bank never has to provide provisional credit? We have been under the assumption that once the written confirmation is received, even beyond 10 business days, once received provisional credit needs to be provided (we provide it the next business day). Someone is now questioning our assumption. Have we been incorrect all this time and do not need to provide the provisional credit?

Thank you.

I can confirm you have been incorrect, although you've been providing better customer service than the regulation requires.

If you don't have that written confirmation (after notifying the customer that you need it within 10 business days to provide provisional credit), you do not need to provide provisional credit. You do have to pursue the investigation, however, and it should start right away (not waiting for the written confirmation).

John,

Thank you for your response. You stated "after notifying the customer that you need it within 10 business days to provide provisional credit" would having the following statement in our EFT disclosure given at the time of account opening provide sufficient notification:

"If you provide oral notice, you will be required to send in your complaint or question in writing within ten (10) business days."

There is no mention of needing this in order to provide provisional credit on our EFT disclosure, but we do include the address where written confirmation must be sent.

Thank you.

You have to tell them when they orally present the dispute.

1005.11(b)(2) Written confirmation. A financial institution may require the consumer to give written confirmation of an error within 10 business days of an oral notice. An institution that requires written confirmation shall inform the consumer of the requirement and provide the address where confirmation must be sent when the consumer gives the oral notification.

I'd like to open this post again and ask about zero liability and how it works in these situations. Visa says to give provisional credit within 5 business days of notice. Does anyone know if the 5 days is within receipt of the written confirmation or does it need to be within 5 days of the oral dispute notice? We had a customer make a claim and refused to contact the merchant. The merchant contact date is needed for the bank to make a zero liability claim to Visa. We can't not take the dispute based on the fake claim, but in doing so and after giving provisional credit we find out the customer signed a contract with a no return clause. So we can take our money back. Of course, the funds are not available now. We're looking for a way to handle these disputes that will allow us time to do the investigation before we have to give provisional credit. We could have not given it and waited for the customers written confirmation, but then I'm told we would have been outside the Visa requirements. Any thoughts?

Thank you. How does a bank inform the customer when they orally present the dispute? Can this be verbal? Does it have to be in writing? There is nothing in the regulation or the commentary to point how to fulfill this expectation.