Strictly for Reg E, putting aside Visa/MC rules for now, is 'paid by other means' an error? It seems like providing the debit card initially would constitute authorization. Subsequently paying by another means than the one first authorized would make this a merchant dispute. Just wanted to get others' thoughts.

Thanks!

To me, paid by other means indicates my debit card was charged when I actually paid the bill by cash, check, ACH, etc. This means that I did not authorize the charge to my debit card, so this is an EFTA error. A business may have my card number for a number of reasons that did not involve authorization for a particular transaction.

I agree with InFairness. Providing a card to hold a reservation does not equate to providing authorization to charge the card. The challenge with this dispute reason is that V/MC will require proof of the alternative means of payment in order to have chargeback rights and Reg E limits the documentation that can be required to start a clam to name, account number and to the extent possible why the consumer believes an error exists.

Reg E doesn't care whether or not the bank has chargeback rights available to aid in its investigation. It simply says the bank must investigate after receiving a claim from the customer. In the event the customer cannot provide proof of payment, you may need to attempt to contact the merchant directly.

Just because V/MC classify disputes in "Fraud" and "Merchant Disputes, remember these classifications do not equate to "Reg E" and "Non Reg E." 1005.11(a) describes many errors that fall into the "merchant dispute" category for V/MC.

Thanks to you both. I see the consumer friendly logic. Just trying to get a handle on these things.

It's the one big reason I will never give my debit card number to reserve a car or accommodations. In fact, given the problems with after-departure charges (alleged smoking in a non-smoking room; charges for a parking-lot ding on a rental car, etc.), I always use a credit card at such places, never a debit card.

I have seen more of these than I want this year.

Member pays the merchant with our debit card but is told the transaction did not go through. Member then pays with cash or another card. They discover later that the transaction on the debit card did post. When member contacts the merchant they are told that they don't see the debit card payment the member is referring to. And most of the members that paid with cash do not retain the receipt.

We lose money on all those that did not retain the receipt as well as those that are under the dispute threshold.