Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
The OP attempted a charge off; the hotel provided the information to the card company that AMEX accepted as substantiating the validity of the charge and so the charge off was not upheld
In Australia, if the retailer provides substantiation that the charge is valid, the charge will still stand in Australia too
Sorry Dave, but its not a valid charge if its not authorised by the OP, Amex is bound by the EFT code of practice in this regard:
Unauthorised credit card and charge card account transactions
5.11 Where an account holder complains that there is an unauthorised transaction on a credit card account or a charge card account, the account institution shall not hold the account holder liable for losses under clause 5 for an amount greater than the liability the account holder would have to the account institution if the account institution exercised any relevant rights it had under the rules of the credit card or charge card scheme at the time the complaint was made against other parties to that scheme.
Explanatory endnote 21 :
Account institutions may be able to resolve unauthorised transaction disputes on credit exercising rights (such as the right to chargeback a transaction) against other parties to credit card or charge card accounts. This clause does not require account institutions to exercise any such rights. However they cannot hold account holders liable under clause 5 for a greater amount than would apply if they had exercised those rights. The relevant rights are those that exist at the time the complaint were made. A delayed complaint may mean the rights have expired by the time of the complaint.
The above note is key here, if there is a dispute as to liability in regard to an unauthorised use of a credit card over the phone or the internet, for example, and the issuer is able to show that the cardholder has contributed to the loss, then the loss to be borne by the cardholder will be no greater than that which would have been the case had the bank exercised its chargeback rights against the merchant. Worst case is Amex holding the OP liable for costs after chargeback, if there are any.
This is a provision of the EFT code, other chargeback provisions such as goods fit for purpose etc are not covered under this act but under the code of banking practice, which Amex are not a party to.
The simple fact is that the hotel is unable to provide proof of an authorisation to use the card.