We have a customer who filed a dispute with us on an unauthorized charge that was only pre-authorized. The charge never completed or posted to the account. Is it a true Reg E. dispute? I've told her that the charge never posted, but do I need to follow up with a letter to satisfy Reg E?

The only notice Reg E requires to be in writing is a notice that no error occurred and a statement regarding the revocation of provisional credit and the consumer's right to obtain the documentation you relied on to deny the claim.

Your Reg E procedures should specify how notice for other claims occurs (written vs. oral.)

Since the transaction never posted, there is no error to investigate.

Some of my clients elect to send a written notice to close their file just to be consistent with other claims and reduce the risk of an employee making a decision not to send a notice when one is required.

Like Brian said, our bank sends a letter to close the file.

We've never issued provisional credit on an authorization since we have 5 days under Visa to issue credit. For part of our investigation, we will monitor the transaction until it posts (then we'll give provisional credit and dispute) or until the authorization hold expires (then we'll close and send a letter).

Our closing letter is a form letter, this is one of the options. "The transaction(s) in question did not post to your account; therefore, no error has occurred and no credit will be issued. Copies of the documents on which our decision was based is included for your review."

Perfect! Thanks for your help BrianC.

Thanks so much, I appreciate your help burkemi