NEW YORK–It isn’t just credit union call centers being inundated with members disputing credit card charges—the volume of calls is surging everywhere.
In 2023, consumers disputed about 105 million charges with credit-card issuers in the U.S., worth an estimated $11 billion. That is up from $7.2 billion in 2019, according to Datos Insights, a finance-industry research firm, the Wall Street Journal reported, noting the company is predicting that figure will rise nearly 40% by 2026.
‘Getting Savvy’
“Consumer advocates say the trend is a sign that people are getting savvy about their rights as cardholders,” the Journal stated in its analysis. “Under federal law, debit- and credit-card holders can dispute billing errors, unrecognized or unauthorized charges, and transactions that are misrepresented, defective or not delivered.”
But when cardholders misuse the process to dispute legitimate charges, credit-card companies call it “friendly fraud,” the report continued. “This covers everything from flagging unrecognized transactions and unwanted subscriptions to just trying to get stuff for free.”
‘It’s Just Easier’
Noting customers are supposed to make a good-faith effort to resolve disagreements with businesses before turning to their bank, but many find it is easier to skip that step, Eran Agrios, senior vice president of financial services at Salesforce, which is working with Mastercard to help merchants address these disputes, told the Journal.
The report further noted that social-media influencers also popularized chargebacks.
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