Who's responsible for delayed billing?

Answered by:

Question:

We have a customer that used a debit card to rent a car on 11/22/2022. The preauthorization amount was for $854.60. The customer has since disappeared. The rental car company has finally sent through a posting transaction on 03/13/2023 using that original authorization in the amount of $38,843.18. Can the rental company send that much through using the same authorization? Is there a time frame the merchant has to complete the transaction? Can I dispute this transaction through ACH or credit/debit card rules or something else?

Answer:

Since the transaction was processed through a debit card, Nacha rules don't apply at all. Visa/Mastercard both have chargeback rights when a merchant forces a transaction that exceeds the amount of the preauthorization. However, the timeframes for filing these chargebacks are 120 days from the transaction date for Mastercard and 75 days for Visa.

A chargeback would have needed to have been filed in 2023 to recover from the merchant.