Really weird credit card dilemma.

[Empathy]

Sorry if this the wrong place to put this but I couldn't see any other place that would be more appropriate.

 

My boyfriend and I purchased a piece of furniture for our new apartment a couple of months ago that cost a pretty penny. We used a credit card that we got through the furniture place. They in turn go through a credit card company. I'm sure most of you know how this goes...Anyway. We were told that a month after the card had been charged we would get a bill. Well, two months later and no bill. So I'm getting nervous. I call the furniture store and they tell us they charged the card June 4th and everything went through which I'm sure means they got their money. So they tell me I need to call the credit card company. I call the company and they tell me the card has not been charged.

 

So I'm confused. The furniture store got their money, they say our card has been charged. But the card company is saying we have made no purchases with it. What happened? Are we possibly sitting on a free piece of furniture?

 

What would you guys do? A family friend is saying we need to send a certified letter to the company saying our card never got charged just in case they call us a few months from now saying we never paid. Then after that just sit and wait.

 

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance everyone!

[sidehop]

That's odd, did you get a receipt originally? If not I'd probably get something written from them, if a CC says nothing was charged there's something going on at the furniture place.

[Empathy]

That's odd, did you get a receipt originally? If not I'd probably get something written from them, if a CC says nothing was charged there's something going on at the furniture place.

 

Do you think its possible they charged it to the wrong account number? It seems to me that it would have been found out by now though...I think someone is going to notice a random 1,800 dollar charge on their account.

[AndiD]

Ask the credit card company if they see an approval going through at any time from the furniture company. Essentially, when you use a credit card, money changes hands in two parts. There's an immediate electronic approval which holds the money (if you use online banking, its similar to when a debit card purchase is "pending"). Then at some set time it "settles" - usually at night. That's when money actually changes accounts. It's possible that the furniture store got approval but never settled, in which case the charge would drop off the credit card. So ask the credit card company if they see an approval for the date in question that was never settled.

 

You can also get the transaction number from the furniture store to give to the credit card company.

[Empathy]

Ok, so a furniture company can gain approval, never settle and still make profit off the sale? That's the part that's confusing me. Is they said they got their money, but it doesn't seem to be coming from our account.

 

I just want to apologize. I'm new to stuff like this.

[sidehop]

Ok, so a furniture company can gain approval, never settle and still make profit off the sale? That's the part that's confusing me. Is they said they got their money, but it doesn't seem to be coming from our account.

 

That's odd...no original receipts and terms of sale during the transaction? Even if there's a payment plan they should have given you something.

[Empathy]

Nice. Just found out my bf actually lost the receipt.... *sigh*

[catfeeder]

If they can tell you whether your account was charged, then you have an account number. I'd start making payments on that account, and this should prompt a credit statement to be sent to you. I would continue making payments for when the adjustment catches up with you. Otherwise, you can get socked with late fees and interest--which they are justified in applying because you've essentially signed an agreement to that effect.

 

Be careful in them waters. Charge accounts are not run the way we remember--they are booby trapped everywhere, and unless you make regular payments to demo 'good faith,' they can ruin your credit and charge you heaps for the insult.

[Empathy]

If they can tell you whether your account was charged, then you have an account number. I'd start making payments on that account, and this should prompt a credit statement to be sent to you. I would continue making payments for when the adjustment catches up with you. Otherwise, you can get socked with late fees and interest--which they are justified in applying because you've essentially signed an agreement to that effect.

 

Be careful in them waters. Charge accounts are not run the way we remember--they are booby trapped everywhere, and unless you make regular payments to demo 'good faith,' they can ruin your credit and charge you heaps for the insult.

 

We haven't made any payments because we haven't gotten a bill. Which is what started all of this. How can we pay them when according to them we have no balance to pay? And the part about it being booby trapped is what has me scared. I'm paranoid that this is some kind of trick or something.

[AndiD]

Ok, so a furniture company can gain approval, never settle and still make profit off the sale? That's the part that's confusing me. Is they said they got their money, but it doesn't seem to be coming from our account.

 

I just want to apologize. I'm new to stuff like this.

 

Don't apologize. Credit cards are a mess to deal with, and the entire system is very illogical to me.

 

If they never settle, they never get their money. But it may take time for bookkeeping to notice it, or they may miss it completely if someone's being really slack. Typically how it works f you're a merchant who accepts credit cards, you've essentially got a series of accounts. You have to have a merchant account that accepts credit cards, and then you have to have a processing gateway. When the "settle" part occurs at the end of the day, essentially all the pending stuff from the business that day goes into one big lump sum, which then gets transferred to the bank account. A bookkeeper theoretically should be matching up the transactions daily to make sure the total matches up, but people can miss things, etc. It's possible that the furniture place thinks they've gotten their money and haven't. It's also possible that the credit card account holder had a blip in their system. The charge may have disappeared into cyberspace. I wouldn't count on that, though. The last thing you want is for this charge to suddenly reappear years from now on a credit report or something. At the very least, I'd submit a written inquiry to both the credit card company and the furniture store. Never hurts to have stuff in writing.

[catfeeder]

We haven't made any payments because we haven't gotten a bill. Which is what started all of this. How can we pay them when according to them we have no balance to pay? And the part about it being booby trapped is what has me scared. I'm paranoid that this is some kind of trick or something.

 

That's what I'm trying to tell you. Not getting a bill won't be accepted as an excuse for not paying what you owe when you owe it. Read any credit card agreement. It will not only show up as late on your credit reports, but they'll impose late charges--and then they'll either be jerks about that and enforce those, or they'll credit those later but will still leave your credit report with a blemish and may not credit the interest.

 

If you have the account number, you have a way to make a minimum payment. You can either access your account via the web, or the web publishes their payment address. Put your account number on the check. If they cash it, you're covered. If they don't, then you can demonstrate that you attempted to pay.

[Empathy]

Ok guys. Pay close attention. lol. I found the receipt from the day we ordered the sofa. I found something strange. We ordered the sofa on 4/29/10 and made a down payment of 525. On the second page in the bottom right hand corner it says:

 

Merchandise Total: 2,059.99

Delivery: 59.99

Installation: 0.00

Tax: SH1 177.16

Total sale: 2,297.14

Total payments/credits: 525.00

balance due: 1,772.14

Amount financed: 0.00

 

By amount financed shouldn't it say 1,772.14? Could this mean anything? The card was still charged on June 4th for the remaining balance. But according to the receipt they seemed to have made it to where we weren't financing anything.

[Empathy]

Ok. We just got off the phone with the CC company and they state again that there is no record of any transaction. None. So it looks like this might be a mistake with the furniture company.