Does anyone know what SPECIFIC verbiage needs to be in the Customer Provisional Credit Letter, Permanent Credit Letter or if a letter needs to be sent after a dispute is filed, but the merchant credits the customer before you can even investigate the dispute, MUST it be acknowledged that you received the dispute but it was denied due to the fact the merchant has already issued credit?

Anyone out there that can help? I am new to this site and not sure if I have posted in the right "section". Any help would be appreciated please, and thank you!

See section 1005.11(c)(2)(ii), (iii), and (iv). This provides the information needed in your notifications.

As for your section question. Considering that Reg E is hyper consumer friendly, your best option is to acknowledge the dispute, and rather than "deny" the claim, simply notify your customer that the merchant issues a refund of $xx.xx on xx/xx/xxxx and as a result, the dispute is resolved and no further credit is warranted (this assumes, of course, a dollar for dollar refund).

Thanks! In previous audits I can remember "certain verbiage" that they stated needed to be used but we are looking to change our process and simplify it but need to keep in compliance with both Regulation and VISA.

If you are denying a claim Reg E 1005.11(d) requires that the notice be in writing to advise the consumer that your are revoking provisional credit (if applicable), that you will honor preauthorized checks and debits for five business days and that the consumer has the right to request documents that you relied on to determine that no error occurred.

Notices of provisional credit and/or final credit can be made orally or in writing provided that you document when/how notice was provided.

THIS is exactly what I was I was looking for! Thank you! What about the situation where the customer files a dispute say on Monday, and our department doesn't yet do anything with it, as we haven't gotten to it yet, and the merchant ends up crediting back the customer that Monday night. On Tuesday, can I just close that Dispute Case that was filed, seeing as how there is nothing now to dispute and leave it at that, OR would I have to send a letter to the customer STATING that we closed the dispute case due to the fact that the merchant has already issued a credit and took care of it?

In that case I would conclude that an error DID occur; however, the customer received credit from the merchant to correct the error so no additional investigation is needed. Since I'm concluding that an error did occur, not revoking provisional credit, etc. I can either notify the customer orally or in writing.

You can't just leave the dispute hanging without notifying the consumer of the results of your investigation.

Thanks so much!

Can this "in writing" be in the form of an email?

And does VISA have any rules as to if the customer has to be notified by paper mail or can credit letters, revocation letters, etc be sent by email or electronic measures?

The "in writing" can only be in the form of an email if your customer has jumped through the ESIGN demonstrable consent hoops and electronically agreed to receive this type of communication electronically.

Visa has no rules at all about how you go about notifying a a cardholder about the status of their claim.

Even if we do not require cardholder signature to file dispute?
We allow them to email us, call us, chat us, and tell us verbally, then we submit our disputes electronically.

ESIGN requires demonstrable consent when sending a required disclosure or statement to a consumer.

The consumer doesn't need the bank to comply with demonstrable consent to send us a document electronically because we are a business. However, to send a required disclosure or statement to a customer requires bank to comply with ESIGN for electronic and demonstrable consent. There is no exception to this rule and it doesn't matter how the dispute started or whether you require a dispute letter or not.

1005.4(a)(1) makes this as clear as it can be.

Form of disclosures. Disclosures required under this part shall be clear and readily understandable, in writing, and in a form the consumer may keep, except as otherwise provided in this part. The disclosures required by this part may be provided to the consumer in electronic form, subject to compliance with the consumer-consent and other applicable provisions of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act) (15 U.S.C. 7001 et seq.). A financial institution may use commonly accepted or readily understandable abbreviations in complying with the disclosure requirements of this part.

THANK YOU!