Recently, I had an over one thousand dollar credit card dispute on a charge from a car rental. It took me many months to fight it and I had a very hard time getting it resolved in my favor. Thankfully, I ended up winning.

I think it’s beneficial for me to go through the steps I took in order for others to learn and be able to win their disputes as well.

A long story short

I rented a car for a longer period of time and when I returned the vehicle, the car rental (as they often do) added a ton of fees that they claimed I was liable for. For example, they claimed I passed a toll booth without an EZ-Pass once, therefore I need to pay them $3 a day for every day of the rental, etc., etc. 

Plus, they charged me for a full extra month with absolutely no justification. The car was returned and I was still billed the next month.

Step #1 - The dispute

The car rental was billed on one of my Amex cards. I usually have very good experience with Amex regarding credit card disputes so I did not think I would have any issues here. 

I called Amex and went through all the charges and why I think they were not justified, and submitted disputes on all of them.

Step #2 - Dispute resolved, not in my favor

Even though on some of the smaller charges I won the dispute, on the larger charges the car rental responded to my dispute with invoices and some copies of their terms and conditions stating that I was liable for the charges. 

But interestingly enough, even for the extra month that I was billed, Amex resolved the dispute in the merchants favor based on an invoice that they provided. The invoice stated the time period of the actual rental, ending with the date I returned the car which was clearly before the next month started! It was on that invoice clearly proving my side of the story but Amex just closed the dispute in the merchant’s favor without even looking at the document the merchant provided!

Step #3 - I responded to the merchants response

I followed up with Amex and explained to them to please just review the invoice and see that the car was returned. It was black and white. But unfortunately, after about 30 days I got a letter in the mail with the same exact response; that the merchant again provided the same exact invoice and the dispute remains closed in the merchant’s favor.

Step #4 - A CFPB complaint

The next step for me was to file a CFPB complaint against Amex. The CFPB is the government organization that governs the credit card issuers. Sending a complaint to them usually works wonders in getting a bank or credit card issuer to take matters seriously. 

Amex was clearly not doing their duty and was not even wasting a second on my dispute to do their basic due diligence of reviewing the evidence. I wonder if there was even at any point a human involved or I was just fighting a robot.

But in either case, I outlined my case very clearly in the CFPB complaint.

After submitting a complaint to the CFPB, banks and credit card issuers have 14 days to respond. I hoped that this would do the trick and I’d finally get someone at Amex to review the case properly.

But unfortunately, the CFPB complaint did not work either. Amex responded that they would investigate it, but after about another 30 days, I got the same letter again copy-paste; “The merchant responded with the following invoice therefore you’re liable to pay”.

Step #5 - Small claims court

At this point, I was extremely frustrated with American Express. So I decided to move this case a step further. I was going to take Amex to small claims court.

I started reviewing the small letters of the cardmember agreement to see if there was anything I needed to know before suing them in court as I knew that some credit card issuers force you to sign arbitration agreements which would not allow me to sue them in court.

While reviewing the agreement I noticed that Amex mentions that before beginning any lawsuit against them you need to first send them a “claim notice”. The claim notice is a very basic form filled out with the basic story.

I decided to give that a shot. I filled out that form including some documentation and sent it to Amex by mail.

That did the trick!

Once Amex got my letter I got a phone call from an Amex rep promising to investigate my dispute. Even though I had already been promised a few times by Amex that my dispute would be investigated, this time it felt more serious. 

And thankfully, a few days later I got a letter in the mail stating that Amex found that I was right and they would refund all charges to me that I’d disputed!

Lesson learnt

After months and months of back and forth, I now regret that I did not send this letter right away. I did not even need to go to court or arbitration. Only sending them the letter that I was about to sue them was enough for them to take the case seriously and refund me on all my charges (even the ones I did not have the best proof on)! 

I probably could have gone even further and asked them for compensation for my time wasted on the dispute but I didn’t go that far. 

So if you ever have a dispute on a credit card transaction with Amex then follow these steps and hopefully you will win just like I did!