Hello,

We have a customer who submitted a claim stating that two years of recurring charges from an online vendor were unauthorized. Clearly, this goes well beyond the time limits imposed by Reg E. I have reviewed the Visa Zero Liability Policy, Specifically section 1.4.6.1 of the Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules and do not see any type of cut-off time.

The merchant (a very, very large commonly used company) reversed four monthly service fees. I contacted the merchant to discuss their return policy. They stated that if the customer states that they never signed up they will review to see if the services have been used (in this case some type of electronic streaming). They could not provide any additional information.

So, since four months of fees have been reversed, which goes beyond the time periods in Reg E, and it appears the consumer was negligent in monitoring their transactions, is any additional credit due under the Visa policy?

Any help would be appreciated, this is not my area of expertise.

Thank you,

Jocali Nakao

Bump

I'm not a Visa expert, but I do want to clarify a few things you stated in your original post:

1. "Clearly, this goes well beyond the time limits imposed by Reg E.
There is no statue of limitations in Reg. §1005.11 does have a 60 day provision, but §1005.6 does not. §1005.6 requires you to investigate promptly but doesn't have strict deadlines for you to finish the investigation and doesn't require provisional credit.

2. it appears the consumer was negligent in monitoring their transactions"
While Visa has a "negligent" clause, Reg E does not. In fact, Reg E states:
Negligence by the consumer cannot be used as the basis for imposing greater liability than is permissible under Regulation E. Thus, consumer behavior that may constitute negligence under state law, such as writing the PIN on a debit card or on a piece of paper kept with the card, does not affect the consumer's liability for unauthorized transfers. [Staff Interpretations to §1005.6(b) #2]

Thank you David. Appreciate the response!!

Darth, what was your outcome?

Our account agreement requires notification within 60 days of a statement being issued. Under the Visa Zero liability rules I would consider this negligent on the consumer's part as transactions occurred "unauthorized" for a period of two years. I also discussed the merchants refund policy with the merchant.

To update, the merchant refunded four months of fees - so we did not issue any provisional or final credit. We reversed one NSF fee due to the most recent monthly fee from the merchant and closed out.