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A woman who fought with her credit card company for six months over a charge for a Los Angeles hotel had $3000 refunded only when a dispute resolution service stepped in.
FSCL, which deals with cases that cannot be resolved between customers and financial services providers, said the woman lived in New Zealand but travelled internationally for work.
In September 2023, she noticed $3000 had been charged to her credit card for a Los Angeles hotel. FSCL does not identify the service providers complained about.
She was in LA at the time of the charge, but did not stay in the hotel.
The card issuer asked the hotel about the charge and it provided an invoice for a two-day stay in November 2023 and a letter confirming the charge was legitimate, so the card issuer declined to reverse it.
But the woman argued the charge was fraudulent and should be reversed. The invoice amount was wrong, the room was booked under someone else's name and she had not been in the city in November of that year.
She said it was still unresolved six months later.
The card company said she needed to call its fraud team and it was possible she had booked the room for her friends or family.
When FSCL investigated, the card issuer accepted that the details used to process the booking had been incorrectly entered and credited her $3000.
FSCL case management team leader Stephanie Newton said if a complaint with a financial service provider was not resolved, or it was taking too long, they could go to an external dispute resolution scheme for help.
"In this case the consumer and the provider had been in dispute for six months before FSCL became involved, so we encourage consumers to reach out to us early if they have a problem with a financial service provider."
All financial service providers in New Zealand are required to be a member of a dispute resolution scheme - either the Banking Ombudsman, Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman, FSCL or FDR.