October 2018 

consumer news 

FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES 

Credit and Debit Card Billing Issues 

What You Need to Know 

People are making more purchases than 

ever with credit and debit cards. Te more 

you use your cards, the more likely it is you 

will experience a credit or debit billing issue, 

such as an unauthorized purchase, a charge 

for an incorrect amount, or a returned item 

not properly credited to your account. 

What can you do to protect your money? 

Tere are federal laws in place to assist 

consumers and limit their liability for 

debit and credit billing issues – Regulation 

E and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act 

(EFTA) for debit cards and Regulation Z 

and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) for 

credit cards. (Regulation E and EFTA will 

provide protections for prepaid accounts 

efective April 1, 2019.) 

Regulation E provides protections for 

consumers who transfer funds through 

electronic methods. Tese methods include 

point-of-sale (POS) and automated teller 

machine (ATM) transactions as well as 

automatic withdrawals from your bank account.

Consumers’ responsibilities and potential 

liabilities for unauthorized transactions under 

Regulation E are outlined in the chart here. 

Event Consumer’s Responsibility Consumer’s Liability 

Your debit card 

or personal 

identifcation 

number (PIN) 

is lost or stolen. 

Notify the bank within two business 

days after learning of the loss or theft. 

Notify the bank within 60 days after 

you received your statement showing 

the frst unauthorized transfer. 

Notify the bank more than 60 days 

after you received your statement 

showing frst unauthorized transfer. 

You will be responsible for no more 

than $50 of the unauthorized transfer. 

You may be responsible for as much 

as $500 of the unauthorized transfer. 

You may be responsible for all 

of the unauthorized transfer that 

the institution establishes would not 

have occurred had the consumer 

notifed the institution within the 

60-day period.

Your debit Notify the bank within 60 calendar You will not be responsible for any 

card or PIN days after you receive the statement amount of the unauthorized transfers. 

is not lost or on which the unauthorized transfer 

stolen, but the frst appears. You may be responsible for all 

card number of the unauthorized transfer that 

is used for Notify the bank more than 60 days the institution establishes would not 

unauthorized after you received your statement have occurred had the consumer 

transactions. on which the unauthorized transfer 

frst appears. 

notifed the institution within the 

60-day period.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Event Consumer’s Responsibility Consumer’s Liability 

Your credit card is lost 

or stolen. 

Notify the card issuer as soon 

as you are aware that the card 

is missing. 

You may be responsible 

for no more than $50 of 

the unauthorized charges. If 

unauthorized/fraudulent charges 

derive from telephone, online, 

or mail transactions your liability 

is $0. 

You notice unauthorized 

charges (for example, 

your card was charged 

for goods or services not 

received, the merchant 

charged an incorrect 

amount, or the merchant 

charged your card twice). 

Notify the card issuer within 

60 days from the receipt of 

your billing statement showing 

any unauthorized charges or 

billing errors. 

You may be responsible 

for no more than $50 of 

unauthorized charges. 

Your credit card number 

is stolen. 

Notify the card issuer as soon 

as you are aware that the card 

is missing. 

You may be responsible 

for no more than $50 of 

unauthorized charges. 

Regulation Z and TILA provide safeguards 

against inaccurate and unauthorized 

charges to open-end and revolving credit 

accounts, including credit cards. According 

to Regulation Z, you do not pay the disputed 

amount while the transaction is under 

investigation by the bank; however, you are 

required to make payments on any portion 

of the bill that is not in dispute, including 

fnance charges. Consumers’ responsibilities 

under Regulation Z and TILA are 

outlined in the chart above. 

Additionally, many credit card issuers have 

zero-liability policies, meaning that customers 

typically do not pay for unauthorized 

transactions, so contact your credit card issuer 

as soon as you discover any. 

Be sure to review your credit card and bank 

statements regularly to catch billing errors 

and unauthorized transactions as quickly 

as possible. It’s also a good idea to review 

your credit reports regularly for inaccurate 

information. You are entitled to a free copy 

of your credit report from each of the three 

major credit bureaus once every 12 months. 

To order your free annual reports, go to 

AnnualCreditReport.com or call toll-free 

1-877-322-8228.

To learn more about debit and credit card 

billing issues and dispute resolution visit 

the following sites: 

• https://www.fdic.gov/consumers/

assistance/protection/errorresolution.

html

• https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/

articles/0385-sample-letter-disputingbilling-errors

If you have any concerns with a billing 

issue or dispute resolution with your card 

issuer or bank, contact the FDIC through 

our Customer Assistance Form, which 

can be found at www.fdic.gov/consumers/ 

assistance/filecomplaint.html or call 

1-877-ASK-FDIC (1-877-275-3342).

For more help or information, go to www.fdic.gov or 

call the FDIC toll-free at 1-877-ASK-FDIC (1-877-275-3342). 

Please send your story ideas or comments to Consumer Affairs 

at consumeraffairsmailbox@fdic.gov